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Past Simple Elementary PDF
Past Simple Elementary PDF
06 Past simple
I played; he made
1 Two examples of the past simple: 5 We often use expressions for a finished time with the
I went to London with two friends last summer. past simple to talk about when things happened in
We stayed in a hotel near Hyde Park. the past:
I lost my watch last week, but I found it in the
2 To make the positive form of the past simple we bathroom this morning.
add -ed to regular verbs: Josie phoned about ten minutes ago.
POSITIVE 6 We use the past simple to talk about recent actions
I/you in finished time periods, to talk about our past, to tell
he/she/it asked stories and to talk about history.
we/you/they
©For past simple negatives and questions, see p. 24.
©For -ed spelling changes (e.g. try/tried), see p. 128.
Grammar in action
3 But many common verbs have irregular past simple
forms. Look at these examples: 1 We use the past simple to talk about recent actions in
break/broke buy/bought catch/caught finished time periods – things we did last week, at the
come/came do/did drink/drank weekend, yesterday or this morning:
eat/ate find/found forget/forgot I went to Brighton last Sunday
go/went have/had know/knew with Katie. We had a picnic on the
leave/left lose/lost make/made beach. It was really nice.
meet/met pay/paid run/ran
2 We use the past simple to tell
read/read see/saw sell/sold
people about our lives in the past:
send/sent speak/spoke spend/spent
I studied music at college, and we started a band.
take/took win/won write/wrote
We played at parties.
The verb be has two past forms: was and were. We often describe holidays and trips:
My brother travelled by bus from Brazil to Chile when
BE: POSITIVE he was a student. He spent a month in Santiago and
Singular I/he/she/it was Plural we/you/they were met a lot of interesting people.
Chris and I were in Scotland at the weekend, and it 3 We use the past simple to tell true stories (lists of past
was very cold! actions) about ourselves, our families and friends:
©For a full list of irregular past participles, see p. 129. I heard a loud noise, so I went downstairs, and I saw
a big black dog in the kitchen.
4 We use the past simple for finished past actions: We also tell fictional stories
Liz lived in Madrid for two years. She had a fantastic (children’s stories and novels):
time there. (Liz doesn’t live in Madrid now.) A long time ago, an old man lived
When Mike was a child, he spent every summer with his beautiful young daughter
holiday in Cornwall. (Mike isn’t a child now.) in a small house.
means ‘to relax’, GRETA Did you have a good weekend, Tim?
e.g. ‘I’m tired. I’m TIM Not bad, thanks. My brother and his wife arrived 0
(My brother and his
taking it easy today.’
wife/arrive) from Scotland on Friday evening, and 1
Hi Ed,
Thanks for your message. I think you’re working too hard. You need a long holiday. Last year, Barry,
the kids and I spent 0 (spend/live) four weeks in Cornwall. It 1
(have/be)
great! We 2
(find/stay) a really nice little house near the sea. We 3
(go/get)
for walks, and we 4
(buy/make) food from the local farms. We 5
(cook/clean)
dinner at home most nights, we 6
(read/look) books instead of watching TV, and the
kids 7
(run/play) games in the garden. It rained sometimes, of course, but we 8
(leave/miss). I’ll send you them, and give you the address of the house!
Best wishes, Stephanie
FOCUS
WORD
make sure you know
wake stay wear lose tell go marry come the meaning of these
sell spend catch become drink three business words:
to borrow, a profit,
My grandfather, Alfredo, borrowed £70 and went 0 to Egypt when he was twenty. and a factory.
He wanted to make money. He studied Arabic. He 1
Arabic clothes. He spoke
to the old men in the markets. He 2
tea with them. When he was hungry, he
3
fish. Sometimes he washed dishes in restaurants. Then one day an old man
4
him to buy coffee. He travelled about, and bought all the coffee he could find
from farmers. He 5
about £50. Then he waited. The following year, 1947, the
price of coffee increased by 200%. So he 6
his coffee and made his first profit.
After that, he worked hard. He 7
every morning at 6 a.m. He bought things
when they were cheap, and he sold them if they 8
expensive! Sometimes he
9
money, of course, but in the end he became very rich. In 1955, he 10
06
7 Look at this dialogue:
Past simple
We didn’t go; did they see?
We must use did/didn’t/Did…? with the verb
TIP
Did you see Stella yesterday? ~ No, she didn’t come
do too:
to college.
Did they do their homework? ~ Yes, but they
8 We make the negative form of the past simple like this: didn’t do the dishes.
subject + did not/didn’t + verb 10 With be, we don’t use did not/didn’t or Did…?:
I didn’t go to the game.
BE: NEGATIVE
NEGATIVE Singular I/you/he/she/it was not/wasn’t in the garden.
I/you Plural You/we/they were not/weren’t at home.
he/she/it did not/didn’t wait
we/you/they
BE: QUESTIONS
9 We normally make the question form of the past Singular Was I/you/he/she/it late?
simple like this: Plural Were you/we/they right?
YES/NO QUESTIONS
Did + subject + verb
Did I/you/he/she/it/we/you/they write to Tim? Grammar in action
4 We use the past simple to talk about
QUESTIONS WITH QUESTION WORDS national and world history:
Question word + did + subject + verb Tony Blair was the British Prime
When did I/you/he/she/it/we/you/they arrive?
Minister from 1997 to 2007. He won
three general elections in 1997,
When did Shakespeare die? (The answer is 1616.) 2001 and 2005.
D Sunday evening
Maggie, Dave and Pete are students. Maggie is returning to their flat on Sunday
evening. Use the words in brackets to make questions or negative forms.
MAGGIE I’m back! Hi Dave. Did you finish your essay 0
? (you/finish your essay)
DAVE No, I’m tired today. 1
(I/not do anything)
this afternoon. 2
? (you see Jenny)
MAGGIE No, 3
. (she/not be at home)
But I met Joanna, the new American student, in town.
PETE Oh. 4
? (she/be OK)
MAGGIE I think so, but 5
(she/not talk very much).
DAVE 6
(you/invite her to our party) next weekend?
MAGGIE Yes. I’m sure she’ll come. 7
(What/you do all afternoon,)
Pete? 8
(you/make a wonderful dinner) for us?
PETE No I didn’t, I’m afraid. But my parents arrived at two o’clock with a fantastic new
TV for the flat.
MAGGIE Well, that’s kind of them. 9
(When/they leave?)
PETE About an hour ago. Do you want a cup of coffee, Maggie?
DAVE Oh. 10
(I/not get any milk this morning,) Pete.
MAGGIE Black coffee is fine. What’s on TV?
E Going on holiday
John and Liz are driving to the airport for a two-week holiday. Put the words in
Put the correct
FOCUS
WORD
brackets in the right order to make questions and negative forms of the past simple. verb next to
Use capital letters to start your answers. the definitions:
JOHN Did you lock the front door, Liz 0
(lock/you/the front door, Liz/did)? to check to feed
to lock
LIZ Yes, definitely. But I didn’t make any sandwiches 0
(make/I/any
sandwiches/didn’t). A to close with a key
JOHN 1
(forget/you/did)? B to give food to an
LIZ No, 2
(didn’t/I/time/have). We’ll get something animal or a baby
at the airport. 3
(your passport/under the bed/was)?
C to look at something
JOHN Yes. (Later) 4
(you/email Sally/did)?
to see if it’s OK
LIZ Yes, last night. She’s going to feed the cat every day.
5 (a key/did/you/give her)?
01
C
Unit Head
-ing forms A Head
INFINITIVE -ING FORM
+ -ing
With most verbs, we add -ing: walk walking
eat eating
-e + -ing
With verbs that end with a consonant* + -e, we delete make making
the -e and add -ing: come coming
write writing
-ie -ying
With verbs that end with -ie, we change -ie to -ying: lie lying
die dying
tie tying
-t -tting
With verbs that end with one vowel* + one consonant sit sitting
(e.g. get, hit, stop), we double the consonant: run running
swim swimming
+ -ing
But note that we do not double the consonant, play playing
1) when it is y or w (e.g. play) happen happening
2) when the last syllable* is not stressed listen listening
(e.g. reMEMber, VISit):
remember remembering