The simple past is a form of the past in English. Some basic rules are: for regular verbs, "-ed" is added to the end of the verb; For irregular verbs, the past form must be learned by heart as they do not follow a specific rule. Examples of regular verbs in the past tense are "walked" and "talked"; Examples of irregular verbs in the past tense are "ate" and "went".
The simple past is formed
In English there are two types of verbs: regular and irregular. In this article you will see first the regular verbs and below the irregular ones.
There are some rules for the formation of regular verbs in English that are based on what are the last letters of the verb in infinitive. The two endings for the formation of the past simple are –d or –ed and depend on the following:
1- The –d is for verbs whose last letter is e. For example:
- · Close - Closed: She closed the store yesterday.
- · Believe - Believed: Last time, you believed that I had lied to you. (Last time, you thought he had lied to you)
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2- The –ed is for verbs in any other ending. For example:
- Jump - Jumped: All the people jumped when they heard that song at the concert.
- Start - Started: I started to do exercise when I was 10 years old.
3- When there is a y at the end, after a vowel, just add –ed. For example
- Play - Played: She played like a pro in the final match
- Pray - Prayed: My grandmother prayed for me when I was in hospital
4- When there is no vowel before the y, it is changed to i+ ed. For example:
- Study - Studied: I studied all night for the last test .
- Try - Tried: They tried to repair car all the morning
5- In other cases, the last consonant of the word must be repeated to add the formula –ed. For example:
- Stop - Stopped: You stopped just in time, before the train crossed
- Plan - Planned: The musicians planned their last concert almost a year ago
How to form the past simple into regular verbs in negative and interrogative forms
To construct sentences in the past simple in their negative form, you have to use the auxiliary do/does, which is the only one that is conjugated in the past tense. The main verb remains in its infinitive form. For example:
- Afirmativa: I went to your house on my bicycle
- Negativa: I didn’t go to your house on my bicycle
- Afirmativa: They practiced their play all weekend
- Negativa: They didn’t practice their play all weekend
As for interrogative sentences, again you have to use the auxiliary do/does. As in the negative form, only the auxiliary is conjugated in the past tense, while the main verb remains in its infinitive form.
- Afirmativa: You remembered the correct answer just before the end of test time
- Interrogativa: Did you remember the correct answer just before the end of test time
- Afirmativa: Your dog destroyed my new shoes in five minutes
- Interrogativa: Did your dog destroy my new shoes in five minutes?
I will leave you a video that always explains about the Simple Past topic.
¡I hope you like it!
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