1. Presented by Karen Inchy
The Past Simple
Presented by
Karen Inchy

2. Function
Indicates an action or series of actions that began and ended at a particular time in the past.
e.g. He walked to the beach yesterday.
Often used for narrative.

3. Regular Form Positive: add -ed to the base form of the verb.
e.g. jump – jumped
Difficulty: spelling

4. Spelling Rules If the verb ends in an -e, only add -d.
e.g. live – lived
If the verb ends in a consonant + -y, change the -y to -i and add -ed.
e.g. study – studied

5. If the verb ends in a vowel + -y, just add -ed.
e.g. play – played
If the verb ends in consonant - vowel -consonant, double the last consonant.
e.g. stop – stopped
exception: visit - visited

6. Pronunciation Difficulty: The past -ed is pronounced in 3 ways.
If the last letter of the base verb is:
Unvoiced: /t/ - worked, watched
Voiced: /d/ - loved, cleaned
Verb ends in d or t: /id/ - wanted, added

7. Negative: Add did not before the base form of the verb.
e.g. He did not pass his driving test.
Contraction: didn’t
Difficulty: when forming the negative pupils may continue to add -ed to the base form of the verb.
e.g. He didn’t passed his driving test.

8. Questions: Begin with did and the verb stays in the base form.
e.g. Did he go to college?
Difficulty: pupils may use the past form of the verb instead of the base form.
e.g. Did he went to college?

9. Irregular Verbs Difficulty: irregular verbs: Do not take -ed
Have to be learned.
e.g. teach – taught
run – ran
put – put
know – knew

10. To Be The verb to be is irregular: I/ he/ she/ it - was
we/ you/ they - were
Difficulty: The verb to be (the copula) is idiosyncratic (no Hebrew equivalent) and has a multiplicity of forms (2 forms). Regular past simple verbs only have one form.

11. Negative: I/ he/ she/ it - was not
we/ you/ they - were not
Contractions: wasn’t / weren’t
Questions: begin with was or were and then the subject (inversion).
e.g. Was she here?
Were they here?
Difficulty: pupils may use did plus was or were to form questions.
e.g. Did she was here?

12. Time Expressions yesterday last (week, month, year)
a long time ago, two days ago
in 1987
in the 1960s
when I was a child

13. Bibliography Azar, B. (1998) Understanding and using English Grammar
Celce-Murcia (1999) The Grammar Book
Zelenko, E. (1994) Develop Your Grammar
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