Exercise 1 – ORAL. Complete the newspaper story about a fire. Put in the past simple forms of the verbs.

LESSON 4

The Past Simple Tense

A. Form:

Affirmative			Interrogative
I He (she, it) We You They	spoke (played)	Did	I he (she, it) we you they	speak (play?)
	Negative
	I He (she, it) We You They	did not (didn’t) speak (play)

Negative-interrogative

a)   Did

I he (she, it) we you they

Not speak? (play?)

b)   Didn’t

I he (she, it) we you they

speak? (play?)

B. Use

1) We use the past simple to talk about actions and situations in the past. We use the past simple for something in the past which is finished:

▪ Emma passed her exam last year.

▪ We went to the theatre on Friday.

▪ Elvis Presley died in 1977.

▪ Elvis Presley died in 1977.

▪ I knew what the problem was.

▪ When did you buy this car? ~ About three years ago.

2) The past simple may denote a succession of past actions:

▪ He shut the window, switched off the light and went upstairs.

3) Very often the past simple ends in –ed (regular verbs): ▪ I work in a travel agency now. Before that I worked in a department store.

▪ We invited them to our party, but they decided not to come.

▪ Laura passed her examination because she studied very hard.

But many verbs are irregular. The past simple doesn’t end in –ed (write–wrote / see–saw / go–went /):

▪ Mozart wrote more than 600 pieces of music.

▪ We saw Rose in town a few days ago.

▪ I went to the cinema three times last week.

4) In questions and negatives we use did / didn’t + infinitive:

▪ Did you go out last night?

▪ They didn’t invite her to the party, so she didn’t go.

5) The past of –be- is –was / were. Note that we don’t use –did- in negatives and questions;

▪ I was angry because they were late.

▪ Was the weather good when you were on holiday?

6) We use –used to – for things that happened regularly in the past, but no longer happens, things that were true, but are not true any more. There is no present form. You cannot say ‘I use to do’:

▪ I used to play tennis a lot, but I don’t play very often now.

▪ David used to spend a lot of money on clothes. These days he can’t afford it.

▪ ‘Do you go to the cinema much?’ ‘Not now, but I used to.’ (to go)

7) The normal question form is –did use to- The negative form is –didn’t use to:

▪ Did you use to eat a lot of sweets when you were a child.

▪ I didn’t use to like him.

Note: Repeated actions are often expressed by –would + infinitive-:

▪ He would spend all days locked in his room.

PRACTICE

Exercise 1 – ORAL. Complete the newspaper story about a fire. Put in the past simple forms of the verbs.

Two people (die)……………….in a fire in Ellis Street, Oldport yesterday morning. They (be)……………….Herbert and Molly Paynter, a couple in their seventies. The fire (start)…………at 3.20 am. A neighbour, Mr Aziz, (see)………………………the flames and (call)………………….the fire brigade. He also (try)……………………to get into the house and rescue his neighbours, but the heat (be)………………………too great. The fire brigade (arrive)………………………….in five minutes. Twenty fire-fighters (fight)………………………the fire and finally (bring)………………it under control. Two fire-fighters (enter)……………the burning building but (find)…………………the couple dead.

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