Past Simple
We use the past simple to talk about finished actions that happened in the past
Verb “to be” in past simple
The simple past of to be has two forms:
•was for subjects I, She, He, It
•were for subjects You, We, They
Affirmative sentences
👉 She was on the phone
👉 You were sad
Negative sentences
👉 I wasn’t pretty (was not)
👉 We weren’t friends (were not)
Questions
👉 Were you in love?
👉 Was he your friend?
Other verbs in past simple
Affirmative sentences
First, we need to know if the verb we are going to use is regular or irregular
•Regular verbs in past simple are created adding “ed” at the end. If the verb ends in “e” we only add “d”
👉 When I was young I played guitar
👉 Last year I exercised a lot
•Irregular verbs do not follow any rule and they have their own fixed version in past simple. You will have to memorize them
👉 I went to the supermarket (go → went)
👉 I bought some vegetables yesterday (buy → bought)
Negative sentences
Instead of “do not” or “does not” we use did not or didn’t + infinitive (without to)
👉 I didn’t do it
👉 She didn’t go to Africa last year
Questions
We replace “do/does” with did and use the infinitive of the main verb (without to)
👉 Did you go to Venice last month?
👉 Where did you buy that jacket?
Past Continuous
We use the past continuous to talk about:
•An action in progress before, and probably after a particular time in the past.
👉 I was walking to the station yesterday when I met John
👉 We were eating dinner last night when he called
•Habits in the past
👉 They were constantly singing
👉 I was always leaving the tap running
•For descriptions
👉 It was a lovely day and the sun was shining
👉 She was wearing an expensive red dress
We build the past continuous with the following formulas:
•Affirmative sentences – was/were + verb + ing
👉 She was looking at me when the bus came
👉 They were fighting when the police arrived
•Negative sentences – was/were not (wasn’t/weren’t) + verb + ing
👉 He wasn’t studying when I came
👉 We weren’t training at the moment
•Questions – was/were + subject + verb + ing ?
👉 Were you spying on me?
👉 What was I saying?