Title: PAST SIMPLE
Course: English at EOI (2nd level)

Revision of rules to form Past Simple.

PAST SIMPLE
• FORMS

REGULAR VERBS
+ I/You/He/She/It/We/They workED
- I/You/He/She/It/We/They DID NOT WORK*

IRREGULAR VERBS
+ I/You/He/She/It/We/They WENT
- I/You/He/She/It/We/They DID NOT GO*

*Contraction: didn’t

• HOW TO MAKE REGULAR SIMPLE PAST FORMS

1. Most verbs: +ed. e.g. work→worked; help→helped
2. After –e: +d. e.g. hope→hoped; like→liked
3. Verbs ending in –y:
a. Vowel (a, e, o)+y →-yed
b. Consonant (d, l, r, etc)+y → +ied
e.g. play→played; enjoy→enjoyed
e.g. try→tried ; reply→replied
4. Doubling:
a. One vowel+one consonant → double consonant+ed
b. Two vowels: don’t double
c. Two consonants: don’t double
d. Only double in STRESSED syllables
e.g. stop→stopped; plan→planned

e.g. seem→seemed; wait→waited
e.g. want→wanted; help→helped
e.g. preFER→preferred; WONder→wondered
5. Irregular verbs:
You have to learn the forms one by one.
e.g. go→went; see→saw; buy→bought

• HOW TO MAKE SIMPLE PAST NEGATIVES with DID NOT / DIDN’T + infinitive (without TO)

E.g. He cleaned the car → He did not clean the car. (NOT He did not cleaned the car)
He started early → He did not start early. (NOT He did not starts early).

• HOW TO MAKE SIMPLE PAST QUESTIONS

e.g. He cleaned the car. → Did he clean the car? (NOT Did he cleaned the car?)
The class went to Rome. → Where did the class go? (NOT Where did the class went?)
• USE
1. We use past simple with finished time-expressions.
e.g. I saw the film last week.
Did you pay William on Sunday?
I started this job three years ago.

2. We often use past simple for things that happened one after another, for example in stories.
e.g. He parked his car, went into the station and bought a ticket. Then he had a cup of coffee and…