WEEK 4
“Daily Activities”
• Simple Past Tense
• Supplementary Materials
• Sampling from “Daily Activities”
• Ratna Asmarani
Simple Past Tense
Definition of the simple past tense
•The simple past tense, sometimes called the
preterite, is used to talk about a completed
action in a time before now. The simple past
is the basic form of past tense in English. The
time of the action can be in the recent past or
the distant past and action duration is not
important.
Simple Past Tense
Examples
•John Cabot sailed to America in 1498.
•My father died last year.
•He lived in Fiji in 1976.
•We crossed the Channel yesterday.
Simple Past Tense
Past time expressions:
•Frequency: often, sometimes, always
•I sometimes walked home at
lunchtime.
•I often brought my lunch to school.
Simple Past Tense
Past time expressions:
•A definite point in time: last week,
yesterday, six weeks ago
•We saw a good film last week.
•Yesterday, I arrived in Geneva.
•She finished her work at seven o'clock
•I went to the theatre last night
Simple Past Tense
Past time expressions:
•An indefinite point in time: the other
day, ages ago, a long time ago
•People lived in caves a long time ago.
•She played the piano when she was a
child.
Simple Past Tense
Forming verbs into the simple past tense
•For regular verbs, add –ed to the root form
of the verb (or just –d if the root form ends in
an e):
•Play Played
•Type Typed
•Listen Listened
•Push Pushed
•Love Loved
Simple Past Tense
Forming verbs into the simple past tense
•For irregular verbs, things get more
complicated. The simple past tense of
some irregular verbs looks exactly like
the root form:
•Put Put
•Cut Cut
•Set Set
•Cost Cost
•Hit Hit
Simple Past Tense
Forming verbs into the simple past tense
•For other irregular verbs, including to be,
the simple past forms are more erratic:
•See Saw
•Build Built
•Go Went
•Do Did
•Rise Rose
•Am/Is/Are Was/Were
Simple Past Tense
How to make the simple past tense
negative
•The formula is did not + [root form of
verb]. You can also use the contraction
didn’t instead of did not.
•Wolfgang did not brag too much about his
hula hoop skills.
•Wolfgang’s girlfriend didn’t see the contest.
Simple Past Tense
How to make the simple past tense
negative
•For the verb to be, you don’t need the
auxiliary did. When the subject of the sentence
is singular, use was not or wasn’t. When the
subject is plural, use were not or weren’t.
•The fourth-place winner wasn’t happy at all.
•The contestants weren’t ready to leave either.
Simple Past Tense
Asking a question in the simple past
tense
•The formula for asking a question in the
simple past tense is did + [subject] + [root
form of verb].
•Did Wolfgang win the gold medal or the silver
medal?
•Where did Wolfgang go to celebrate?
Simple Past Tense
Asking a question in the simple past
tense
•When asking a question with the verb to be,
you don’t need the auxiliary did. The formula
is was/were + [subject].
•Was Wolfgang in a good mood after the contest?
•Did people take lots of pictures?
Simple Past Tense
Uses:
•Referring to an action that happened in
the past
•We went to the park yesterday evening.
•I totally forgot about the meeting.
•Manu opened the door for the guests.
Simple Past Tense
Uses:
•Referring to an action that was true for
some time in the past
•Karthik played tennis when he was in
school.
•Miss Holly worked as a guest lecturer at our
college.
•Santana used to love reading fantasy
novels when she was younger.
Simple Past Tense
Uses:
•Referring to an action that took place
several times in the past
•I worked as an academic counsellor for six
months.
•We enjoyed playing Pictionary every time
we met.
•My father dropped me at school every day
till I entered high school.
Simple Past Tense
buy catch cost drink fall hurt sell
spend teach throw win write
1. Mozart ………. more than 600 pieces of music.
2. 'How did you learn to drive?' 'My father ……….
me.'
3. We couldn't afford to keep our car, so we
………… it.
4. I was very thirsty. I ………… the water very
quickly.
Simple Past Tense
buy catch cost drink fall hurt sell
spend teach throw win write
5. Paul and I played tennis yesterday. He's much
better than me, so he ………….. easily.
6. Don …………. down the stairs this morning and
…………. his leg.
7. Jim …………. the ball to Sue, who ………….. it.
8. Ann …………. a lot of money yesterday. She
…………. a dress. It ………….. 100.
Simple Past Tense
1. I ……… a great book last week. (read)
2. …….. Adam ……… the jacket that he ……… at
the party? (find / leave)
3. Why ……… you ……… for me at the bar
yesterday evening? (not wait)
4. I ……….. for over an hour, but you never ……….
up! (wait / show)
5. My friends ………. to New Delhi via Mumbai a
week ago. (fly)
Simple Past Tense
6. …….. Teresa …….. the last train? (catch)
7. The sunset ……… beautiful last night. (be)
8. ………. they ………. the client’s deadline
yesterday? (meet)
9. When ……. he ……….. from med school?
(graduate)
10. Ella …….. to get a hold of you, but you ..........
home. (try/not be)
Simple
Past
Tense
Simple Past Tense
Simple Past Tense
Simple Past Tense
References
• https://www.ef.com/wwen/english-resources/english-
grammar/simple-past-tense/ accessed August 25, 2024
• https://www.grammarly.com/blog/simple-past/ accessed
August 25, 2024
• https://byjus.com/english/simple-past-tense/ accessed
August 25, 2024
• https://www.grammarbank.com/simple-past-
answers.html accessed September 3, 2024
