Amélia José

Amilton Chibante Ernesto Miquicene

Pulano Lenade Biosse

English Language

Second Year Curse French

Summary of the Past simple theme (forms and uses)

Teacher’s Name: Augusto Teixeira

UNIVERSIDADE PEDAGÓ GICA

Beira

April 2018
 Past Simple (definition)

According AAVV (1998) the simple past, past simple or past indefinite, sometimes called
the preterit, is the basic form of the past tense in Modern English. It is used principally to
describe events in the past, although it also has some other uses.

The term "simple" is used to distinguish the syntactical construction whose basic form uses
the plain past tense alone, from other past tense constructions which use auxiliaries in
combination with participles, such as the past perfect and past progressive.

When we want to indicate that something happened at a specific time in the past, we use the
past simple. We can either say when it happened, using a time, an adverb, or assume that the
hearer already knows when it happened or can understand this from the context.
Examples:
• She arrived at Kennedy Airport at 2 o'clock this morning.
• Jane left just a few minutes ago.

1.2 Formation
 For verbs ending – e, drop the –e and put ed. ——> e.g. live = lived

 Verbs ending in a consonant + e, the –y changes to – i ——> e.g. carry = Carried

 One syllable verbs ending in vowel + consonant double the final consonant. But
exceptions to this are verbs ending – y, -w or –y.

E.g. Shop = Shopped; play = played. Mix= mixed

 If a verb consists of two or more syllables ending in vowel + consonant, the final
consonant is doubled only if the final syllable is stressed. An exception to this in
British English is that we always double an ‘‘L’’ at the end of a verb, even if the
syllable is not stressed. E.g. to travel = Travelled

Difference between regular end irregular verbs in the formation of the past tense

The difference between regular and irregular verbs is the formation of the past simple and past
participle. Regular verbs are dependably consistent- the simple past ends in - ed as does the
past participle. In contrast, the simple past and past participle of irregular verbs can end in a
variety of ways, with absolutely no consistent pattern.
This means that we can be confident with the forms they take because they (regular verbs)
follow a predictable pattern and Those Verbs that don’t follow the basic rules are called
irregular verbs.

2.0. Forming sentences in the past simple

Affirmative: the affirmative of the past simple tense is simple.

E.g. I was in Japan last year She had a headache yesterday We did our homework last
night.

Negative and interrogative

For the negative and interrogative past simple form of "to do" as an ordinary verb, use the
auxiliary "did", e.g. we didn't do our homework last night.

The negative of "have" in the past simple is usually formed using the auxiliary "did", but
sometimes by simply adding not or the contraction "n 't".

The interrogative form of "have" in the past simple normally uses the auxiliary "did".

E.g. they weren't in Rio last summer. E.g. we didn't have any money.
2.1. Formation

The past tense and past participle of regular verbs can be formed by adding “ed” to the end
of the verb root. If the verb already ends with an “e” then we simply add a “d.”
Some examples of regular verbs with their past and past participle forms:

Present Past past Participle

cough coughed coughed
dance danced danced
play played Played
stop stopped stopped

Irregular verbs form the past tense and past participle of irregular verbs irregular verbs with
different forms vary, so it is necessary to memorize the changes.
 Some examples of irregular verbs with their past and past participle forms.
Present Past Past Participle
say said said
Do (does) did done
Be (am, are, is) was (were) been
Become became become
Stand stood stood
Write wrote Written

 2.2 Uses

 The past simple is used for a single event (or sequence of such events) in the past, and also
for past habitual action:

E.g. He took the money and ran. E.g. I visited them every day for a year.

 It can also refer to a past state: E.g. the dog was in its kennel. .E.g. I felt cold.
 The past simple is also used when the event happened at a particular time in the past, or
during a period which ended in the past (i.e. a period that does not last up until the present
time). This time frame may be explicitly stated, or implicit in the context (for example the
past tense is often used when describing a sequence of past events).

E.g. I was born in 1980. E.g. we turned the oven off two minutes ago.
E. g I came home at 6 o'clock. E.g. when did they get married?

 The past simple is used when the event happened at a particular time in the past, or
during a period which ended in the past (i.e. a period that does not last up until the
present time). This time frame may be explicitly stated, or implicit in the context (for
example the past tense is often used when describing a sequence of past events).
E.g. I was born in 1980. We turned the oven off two minutes ago. I came home at
6 o'clock.