Past Tense Past Simple and Past Continuous

Past tense It refers to actions, events that happened in the past.

Past simple Past simple is used to express the idea that an action started and finished at a specific time in the past. Example: She washed her car. It is used by people when they are telling a story. Example: The Little Red Riding Hood came to the forest. Speaker mentions the specific time in the sentence or he has one specific time in his mind. Example: Last year, I traveled to Japan. It is used to list a series of completed actions in the past. Example: I finished work, walked to the beach, and found a nice place to swim. It can also be used to describe a habit which stopped in the past. Example: He played the violin. Etc.

Past simple Declarative sentence: subject + 2nd form of the verb Negative sentence: subject + did + not + infinitive Question: did + subject + infinitive

Regular and Irregular verbs For creating past tense it is necessary to know the correct forms of regular and irregular verbs. Regular verbs: infinitive + -ed Example: learned, waited, talked, stayed, lived Irregular verbs: different forms of the verbs Example: know – knew have – had say – said eat – ate

Past simple Examples: I didn't have dinner yesterday. Did you write to him? She travelled to Italy last year. I worked as a teacher. They didn´t have our address. The team played very well. I forgot to ask him. I studied English yesterday evening. She cried and cried. Did they go by bus? I didn´t give him the ticket.

Past continuous It is used when something happened for a longer time in the past. Example: I was waiting for you for almost two hours. It is used when some longer action was interrupted. Example: While I was watching TV, the telephone rang. It is used when there are two actions in one sentence. Example: I was studying when he was making dinner. It is used when some repetitive actions happened in the past. Example: She was constantly coming late. Etc.

Past continuous Declarative sentence: subject + was/were + ing form of the verb Negative sentence: subject + was/were + not + ing form of the verb Question: was/were + subject + ing form of the verb

Past continuous Examples: He was having lunch when I called him. While John was sleeping last night, someone stole his car. Why weren´t you listening? Two little girls were playing in the sand. A girl and a boy were kissing on a bench. What language were they speaking? She wasn´t smoking. They were telling us stories.

Past Simple versus Past Continuous They arrived early while Iwere having a glass of wine. Paul cooked dinner while wewhile I was watching TV. The doorbell rangshe was driving too fast. He met many friends whilewe were travelling through Europe. She had a car accident becausewas having a shower. We took a lot of photos whilehe was living in Spain.

Exercise Is is past simple or past continuous? Loni jsem prodal svůj byt. Viděla jsi ráno Johna? Když jsem se procházel, začalo pršet. V pondělí jsme se neučili, šli jsme do kina. Minulý týden jsem byl nemocný. Narodil se ve Velké Británii. Včera jsem pracoval na zahradě. Když jsem přišel domů, tatínek četl noviny. V pátek jsem si zajezdil na kole. Koho jsi potkal?

Zdroje: Past present future.jpg, , 08:10,