| The Simple Past is used to talk about facts and events that took place or existed in the past. | |
|---|---|
| Salim studied English with his friends. | They stayed overnight in Ryiadh. |
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Use of Simple Past | |
| 1- Actions that took place in the past. | Sameer ate his dinner an hour ago. |
| 2- Actions that took place one after the other. | He took his jacket, slammed the door and left. |
| 3- Action in the past that took place in the middle of another action as in the case of simple past used with past continuous. | I was sleeping when Ahmad knocked at the door. |
| 4- We use the simple past with type two conditionals. | If I studied hard enough, I would pass the test with ease. |
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Regular past simple verbs are formed by adding
"-ed" to the verb.
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|
| For example: | |
| - walk -> walked: I walked to school yesterday. | - dance -> danced: They danced all night long. |
|
Negatives:
We make the Past simple negatives with did and
not.
Did and not are often contracted to
didn't. | |
| For example: | |
| I ate the cake. | I didn't eat the cake. |
| I stayed overnight in Riyadh. | I didn't stay overnight in Riyadh. |
| Questions: Questions are made by putting did before the subject. | |
| For example: | |
| I walked to school. | Did you walk to school? |
| I ate the food. | Did you eat the food? |
| Irregular Verbs: As for the irregular verbs, you have to memorize them in order to use the simple past. Below are a few examples: | |
|---|---|
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begin - began break - broke build - built buy - bought choose - chose come - came do - did eat - ate feel - felt fight - fought find - found learn - learnt/learned leave - left read - read |
say - said sell - sold send - sent sing - sang sit - sat sleep - slept smell - smelt/smelled speak - spoke stand - stood tell - told think - thought wear - wore win - won write - wrote |