The simple past tense
Meaning & Use
When do we use the Simple Past tense?
■ We use the Simple Past to express the idea
that an action started and finished at a
specific time in the past.
■What are some common time expressions
used with the past tense?
How do we form the simple past tense . . .?
English has two types of
verbs in the past tense: ■ taught
■ walked
■ Regular verbs ■ studied
■ Irregular verbs ■ gave
■ became
Look at the following list
of past tense verbs… ■ cried
which verbs are regular, ■ lived
and which are irregular? ■ did
Regular verbs are verbs that ….
…end with –ed
Simple Form Past Tense
Walk
Study
Cry
Live
Irregular verbs are verbs that . . . .
…DON’T end with –ed
some irregular verbs
Have a vowel change in the past tense:
Simple Form Past Tense
become became
give gave
drive drove
forget forgot
other irregular verbs
Have a different kind of change:
Simple Past
teach taught
bring brought
Leave left
Hear heard
Buy bought
And some irregular verbs
don’t change at all . . .
Simple Past
hit hit
put put
set set
The children set the table every Sunday.
The children set the table last night.
For negative sentences, USE
I went to work yesterday.
I didn’t go to work yesterday.
Exception =
VERB BE!
The verb be is special.
Never use DID NOT or DIDN’T with the verb
BE. Instead, just use:
For Yes/No questions, USE
Did you go to work yesterday?
Did you come yesterday?
Put the verbs (between brackets) into the correct
form (simple past).
Last year, I (spend) ________my holiday in
Ireland. It (be) ________great. I
(travel)___________ around the city by car with
two friends and we (visit) ________lots of
interesting places. In the evenings, we usually
(go)_______ to a café.
We (be) ________very lucky with the weather.
It (not / rain)___________ a lot. We(see)
________some beautiful rainbows.
I (have) ______ an amazing holiday!
Forming Simple Past Passive
Object + was / were + verb3 (past
Affirmative Form
participle)
Was / Were + Object + verb3 (past
Question Form
participle) ?
Active : The teacher corrected the mistakes.
Passive: The mistakes were corrected by the teacher.
Active : Did the little boy sell all the candy bars?
Passive: Were all the candy bars sold by the little boy?
Active : Lauren didn't eat any apples.
Passive: No apples were eaten by Lauran.
Active : He didn't give the wallet.
Passive: The wallet wasn't given by him.
Change the following sentences
from active into passive voice.
1. Who wrote this book?
2. How did they steal her car?
3. The children rang the bell a few minutes ago.
4. The kids forgot the whole story in a few days.
5. Did the president make an important speech
last night?
6. The police didn't question him very closely.
7. The wild animals attacked two men
yesterday.
Answers
1. Who was this book written by?
2. How was her car stolen?
3. The bell was rung by the children a few minutes ago.
4. The whole story was forgotten by the kids in a few
days.
5. Was an important speech made by the president last
night?
6. He wasn't questioned very closely by the police.
7. Two men were attacked by the wild animals
yesterday.
