miércoles, 3 de diciembre de 2014

Past simple, practice with the games!

The simple past tense of the verb to be:

This page will present the simple past tense of the verb to be:
  • its form
  • and its use.

The affirmative form:

I, he, she, itwas.
you, we, theywere.

Examples:

  • was in London in 1999.
  • Pam was in London in 1999, too.
  • We were together.
  • She was my girlfriend.

The interrogative form:

WasI, he, she, it?
Wereyou, we, they?

Examples:

  • Were you in London last year?
  • Was Pam with you?
  • Were you together?

The negative form:

I, you, he, shewas not.
wasn't.
You, we, theywere not.
weren't.

Examples:

  • wasn't in Paris in 1999.
  • Pam wasn't in Paris in 1999.
  • We weren't in Paris.

Rememeber:

1. wasn't is the short form of was not. You can say either:
  • was not in Paris, or
  • wasn't in Paris.
2. weren't is the short form of were not. You can say either:
  • we were not in Paris, or
  • we weren't in Paris 

Past Simple in Regular verbs:

The verbs "lived, started, died" are regular past forms. The rule is the following:
Verb + ed
Examples:

The infinitiveThe simple past
livelived
startstarted
diedied
visitvisited
playplayed
watchwatched
phonephoned
marrymarried

Past simple in Irregular verbs:

The verbs "waswrote" are irregular past forms. "Was" is the simple past of "to be"; "wrote" is the simple past of "write".
More on the simple past of "to be" here.
There is no rule for these verbs. You should learn them by heart.

The infinitiveThe simple past
bewas/were
writewrote
comecame
dodid
meetmet
speakspoke
As you can see we can not predict the simple past forms of these verbs. They are irregular. You should learn them by heart.

The forms of the simple past:

The Affirmative form of the simple past:

I, you, he, she, it, we, theyplayed.
wrote
did.
Examples:
  • played tennis with my friends yesterday.
  • finished lunch and I did my homework.

The interrogative form of the simple past:

DidI, you, he, she, it, we, theyPlay?
write
do?
Examples:
  • Did you play basketball yesterday?
  • Did you watch television?
  • Did you do the homework?

The negative form of the simple past:

I, you, he, she, it, we, theydid not/didn'tplay
write
do
  • didn't like the food in the wedding last Saturday.
  • didn't eat it.

Remember:

didn't is the short form of did not. You can say either:
  • did not play basketball, or
  • didn't play basketball.
Exercises to practice, click on the games: 

Game 1
Game 2
Game 3
Game 4