Today, we will tell you about 3 problems :

HELLO EVERYONE !!!

->The Simple past.->The Past Continuous.

->The Past Simple and Continuous.

LET’S BEGIN !

PART I : The Simple Past tense.

1) Form : The form of the Past Simple is the same for all persons.

--> We have 3 types of sentences : Affirmative, Negative, and the Interrogative .

•Affirmative and Negative

He

I

She

We

You

It

They+

• V2

• V+ed

Didn’t + Vo

+Adverb of Time in past(yesterday, last night…etc)Examples…

( Except Be ) :

- I watched The Project Runway on TV last night .

- He didn’t wash his car .

-I saw her in the street 2 days ago .

- Samual didn’t go to school yesterday.

- She traveled to Japan last year .

- I loved him but no more .

- The director didn’t finish his work .

Note : Verb BE ( Negative )

For this verb ONLY, never use DIDN’T. Simply ADD the word NOT after the verb .Ex :

I was tired. I was NOT tired.

She was here. She was NOT here.

They were happy. They were NOT happy

• Interrogative :

Did

+I, you, we,they,

he, she, it+V

oExample :

- Did she eat that cupcake ?

- How did you do that ?

- Where did you go last night ?-->Short answer : - Yes, I did

or – No, I didn’t

In addition, English has TWO types of verbs in the past tense :

• Regular verbs

• Irregular verbs

For REGULAR verbs, simply use the –ed form of the verb in a positive

sentence.

When I was a child, I ___________ the piano.

Donna ______________ and _______________ in Paris when she was younger.

**Spelling of REGULAR verbs : The normal rule is to add –ed or –d :

Some short verbs with only one syllable, we double

the consonant :

worked

started

lived loved

stopped

fitted permitted

planned For verbs ending in a consonant –y, we divide into 2

cases :

o If before Y is a consonant, we turn Y I, then add –ed.

carried studied

o If before Y is a vowel, we add –ed as normal .

For IRREGULAR verbs, use the correct past tense form in positive

sentences.

Last week, I ___________ you a letter.

The student _______ a gift for their teacher on her 30th birthday.

Here are some Irregular verbs :Is/are

Go

Eat

Drink

Run

Make

Become

Begin

Build

Come

Find

Get

Give

Keep

Leave

Lose

Meet

Pay

See

Sing

Sleep

Teach

Write

Win

Was / were

Went

Ate

Drank

Ran

Made

Became

Began

Built

Came

Found

Got

Gave

Kept

Left

Lost

Met

Paid

Saw

Sang

Slept

Taught

Wrote

Won

_

_

_

_

_

_

_

_

_

_

_

_

_

_

_

_

_

_

_

_

_

_

_

_

PART II : The Past Continuous tense.

1)Form :

We have 3 structure :

S + was / were + V-ing (presentParticiple) + O

Affirmative :Affirmative :

Negative :Negative : S + was/were + not + V-ing (presentParticiple) + O

Interrogative :Interrogative : (WH-question) + Was/were + S + V-ing + O ?

**Short answer : Yes, I was / No, I wasn’t.

Examples:- My mom was trying to call me last night, but I wasn’t home.- The kids were studying last night at 9:00.-I was cleaning my house all day yesterday. - They were NOT arguing last night.- Were she going there yesterday ?

Important Note aboutPast Continuous !

Some verbs are NOT typically used in the continuous tense. Instead, we prefer to use these verbs in the simple tenses (simple present or past).

These verbs are called STATIVE (or non-action) verbs. Here are some examples:want like love hateknow need see hearbelieve understand have (possession)forget remember belong

Examples:

I liked Rome.NOT: I was liking Rome.

She had a headache.NOT: She was having a headache.

I knew the answer.NOT: I was knowing the answer.

Using both tenses together:

Sometimes we use both the simple past and the past continuous together to mean . . .

That one action (simple past) interrupted a continuing action (past continuous)

1.Dan burned his hand while he was cooking dinner.=in the middle of cooking dinner, he burned his hand.

2. When Helen called, we were having dinner.=in the middle of eating dinner, Helen called.

And we have some linking-words to make sentences with 2 actions :• WHEN

• WHILE

• SUDDENLY

• ETC…

We can use 2 verbs in past continuous to say that two actions were happening simultaneously in the past:

Ex. Jim was at the park. He was sitting on the grass and reading.