Unit  7

A. At national Portrait Gallery
Simple Past of Be : Was / Were

The simple past expresses an action in the past taking place once, never, several times. It can also be used for actions taking place one after another or in the middle of another action.

Form of Simple Past

	Positive	Negative	Question
no differences	I spoke.	I did not speak.	Did I speak?

Use of Simple Past

• action in the past taking place once, never or several times
  Example: He visited his parents every weekend.
• actions in the past taking place one after the other
  Example: He came in, took off his coat and sat down.
• action in the past taking place in the middle of another action
  Example: When I was having breakfast, the phone suddenly rang.
• if sentences type II (If I talked, …)
  Example: If I had a lot of money, I would share it with you.

Extra Activities

1. http://www.englisch-hilfen.de/en/exercises/tenses/was_were.htm
2. https://www.ego4u.com/en/cram-up/grammar/simple-past/exercises?03
3. http://suz.digitaleschulebayern.de/english/grammar/was_were1.htm
4.  http://www.adelescorner.org/grammar/past_tense/was_quests.html

B.

Simple past of regular verbs

The simple past is used to describe an action that occurred and was completed in the past. The simple past is formed by adding –ed to the base form of the verb (the infinitive without to).

Read lesson  * en español  * en français

base form	+ ed =	simple past
walk		walked
push		pushed
greet		greeted
watch		watched

In English, the simple past of regular verbs is extremely easy. It is the same for all persons. Here are example sentences of the simple past with the verb WORK.

There are several irregularities regarding orthography (spelling) for the simple past ending of regular verbs. Similarly, there are different ways to pronounce this ending. See the lesson onpronunciation of the Simple Past –ed ending to learn more.

For regular verbs ending in the vowel -e, add –d.

base form		simple past
hate		hated
seize		seized
hope		hoped
assume		assumed
tie		tied
free		freed

For the very few English verbs that end in a vowel other than -e, add –ed.

base form		simple past
ski		skied
echo		echoed

Exceptions: The verbs DO and GO are irregular: See below.

For regular verbs that end in a vowel+y, add –ed.

base form		simple past
play		played
decay		decayed
survey		surveyed
enjoy		enjoyed

Exceptions: The verbs SAY and BUY are irregular: See below.

gular verbs that end in aconsonant+y, change the –y to –i and add –ed.

base form		simple past
cry		cried
dirty		dirtied
magnify		magnified

Exception: The verb FLY is irregular: See below.

For regular verbs ending in a consonant + vowel + consonant, double the final consonant before adding -ed.

base form		simple past
dam		dammed
beg		begged
plan		planned
strip		stripped

In American English, when the regular verb has more than one syllable and the syllable stress is on the final syllable, the final consonant is doubled.

base form		simple past		incorrect
defer		deferred		defered
regret		regretted		regreted
reship		reshipped		reshiped
compel		compelled		compeled

In these verbs, the syllable stress is not on the final syllable so the consonant is not doubled.

base form		simple past		incorrect
orbit		orbited		orbitted
listen		listened		listenned
travel		traveled		travelled
consider		considered		considerred

Here are examples with regular verbs in the simple present and the simple past.

simple present		simple past
I walk to school.		I walked to school.
She works downtown.		She worked downtown.
They help on Tuesday.		They helped on Tuesday.
He asks a lot of questions.		He asked a lot of questions.

C. Irregular Verbs

Most verbs have past tense and past participle in –ed ( worked, played, listened). But many of the most frequent verbs are irregular:

Base form	Past tense	Past participle
be begin break bring buy build choose come cost cut do draw drive eat feel find get give go have hear hold keep know leave lead let lie lose make mean meet pay put run say see sell send set sit speak spend stand take teach tell think understand wear win write	was/were began broke brought bought built chose came cost cut did drew drove ate felt found got gave went had heard held kept knew left led let lay lost made meant met paid put ran said saw sold sent set sat spoke spent stood took taught told thought understood wore won wrote	been begun broken brought bought built chosen come cost cut done drawn driven eaten felt found got given gone had heard held kept known left led let lain lost made meant met paid put run said seen sold sent set sat spoken spent stood taken taught told thought understood worn won written