Grammar reference and practice 2.1

2.1 ■ Past simple

Affirmative and negative
I You He / She / It We They	lived didn't (= did not) live	here.
Questions and short answers
Did	I you he / she / it we they	live here?	Yes, I did. No, I didn't.

Spelling rules

• ■Most regular verbs: add -ed

  ■Regular verbs ending in -e: add -d

  ■Short regular verbs ending in consonant + vowel + consonant: double final consonant and add -ed

  ■Regular verbs ending consonant + -y: change -y to -ied

Many verbs have irregular past simple forms, for example, have → had, know → knew, teach → taught. They form questions and negatives in the same way as regular verbs. The verb be, however, is different. The past simple affirmative forms of be are was and were. The negative forms are formed by adding n't (= not).

You / We / They were excited about the trip.

I / He / She / It wasn't very old then.

The past simple question form of be is formed by changing the order of the subject and the verb.

Were you / we / they excited about the trip?

Use

We use the past simple for:

• ■a completed past action or a past state. We often use it with expressions that show when things happened, such as yesterday, ago, when I was a child, in April / 2008, last night / week / month / year, etc.

  The train left the station two minutes ago. You missed it.

  We helped the lady with her bags. She was very old.

  ■a past habit, often with adverbs of frequency and time expressions such as every week / Monday / summer / year.

  They visited their grandparents every Sunday.

  ■a sequence of actions in the past.

  The man crossed the road and went into a café.

1Choose the correct words. 

• 1What did you buybought at the shops?

• 2It stoppedstop raining.

• 3I didn't likedlike the hotel.

• 4George didn't bewasn't in class yesterday.

• 5Did you caughtcatch the train on time?

• 6She studystudied French at university.

 

2Complete the sentences. Use the past simple form of the verbs in brackets. 

You need to use normal letters and capital letters correctly in this task.

• 1We're hungry because we  (not have) breakfast this morning.

• 2 (your mum and dad / buy) a new car recently?

• 3When Jack was younger, he  (spend) every summer by the sea.

• 4Ella  (go) into town, had coffee with her friends and then came back home.

• 5The shops in town  (not be) very busy yesterday.

• 6When  (you / learn) to speak French?

• 7I  (run) all the way home to see my favourite TV programme.

• 8 (they / travel) by train or by bus?

• 9Alina  (not come) to see us last weekend.

• 10 (she / forget) the name of the hotel where they stayed?