2. What is Simple Past Tense? The simple past tense is sometimes called the preterite tense. It is used to talk about actions that happened at a specific time in the past. We can use several tenses to talk about the past, but the simple past tense is the one we use most often. How do we make the simple past tense? This page will explain the rules for forming the simple past tense sentences. Again we want to remember the general structure of English sentences before we start. In this way, you can easily understand.the general structure of English sentences

3. 1. Affirmative (Positive) Sentence

4. 2. Negative Sentence

5. 3. Yes/No type Question

6. 4.Information Question?

7. Affirmative (Positive) Sentences Christopher Columbus discovered America He started a quest for new routes to India The king and the Queen helped him.

8. 2. Negative Sentences Christopher Columbus did not come to America on a car. They did not land in the second island. The king did not destroy America

9. 3. Yes/No type Question Did the Spaniards start to build a fort to protect the area? Yes, they did Did Columbus return to Sapin with water and animals? No, he did not Did the Queen of Spain go to America on bus? No, she did not

10. 4. Information Questions Where did go Christopher Columbus? What did the king of Spain say to Columbus? Who was Christopher Columbus?

11. Exception! The verb to be is different. We conjugate the verb to be (I was, you were, he/she/it was, we were, they were); and we do not use an auxiliary for negative and question sentences. To make a question, we exchange the subject and verb. Look at these examples: The island natives were not bad people

12. When should we use the simple past tense? Use 1 Completed Action in the Past Use the Simple Past to express the idea that an action started and finished at a specific time in the past. I saw a movie yesterday. Did you have dinner last night? When did the train leave? Tom lived in India Use 2 Duration in Past The Simple Past can be used with a duration which starts and stops in the past. Duration is a longer action often indicated by expressions such as: for two years, for five minutes, all day, all year, etc. I lived in India for two years. He studied English for five years. We talked on the phone for thirty minutes.

13. There are two types of past tense verbs : Regular Verbs Most verbs are regular verbs. Regular verbs are those whose past tense and past participles are formed by adding a -d or an -ed to the end of the verb. "To Discover " is a good example of a regular verb: Discover, discovered, discovered Sometimes the last consonant must be doubled before adding the -ed ending. For example: plan, planned, planned Irregular Verbs There is no formula to predict how an irregular verb will form its past-tense and past-participle forms. There are over 250 irregular verbs in English. Although they do not follow a formula, there are some fairly common irregular forms. Some of these forms are: break, broke, broken Build (past: built) cut, cut, cut Bring (past: Brought) run, ran, run meet, met, met come, came, come repay, repaid, repaid swim, swam, swum be was/were been Link of Regular and Irregular verbs: http://studentschile.tripod.com/id1.htmlhttp://studentschile.tripod.com/id1.html

14. REFERENCES http://www.whatisgrammar.com/tenses/past- tense/ http://www.whatisgrammar.com/tenses/past- tense/ https://www.englishclub.com/grammar/verb- tenses_past_s.htm https://www.englishclub.com/grammar/verb- tenses_past_s.htm http://www.cws.illinois.edu/workshop/writers/i rregularverbs/ http://www.cws.illinois.edu/workshop/writers/i rregularverbs/