PAST SIMPLE PAST SIMPLE or or

PAST CONTINUOUSPAST CONTINUOUS

PAST SIMPLE PAST SIMPLE or or

PAST CONTINUOUSPAST CONTINUOUS

How do we form the simple past tense?

English has two types of verbs in

the past:-regular

-irregular

Let’s read the following list of past tense verbs….. Which are regular and which are irregular?

• walked regular• studied regular• taught irregular• gave irregular• became irregular• cried regular• lived regular• did irregular

Regular verbs are verbs that end with -ed

Simple form verbs:

walk

study

cry

live

Past tense verbs:

walked

studied

cried

lived

Rules for adding –ed:Add –ed to most verbs

Drop the “e” and add “ed”: smile = smiled

Drop the “y” and add –ied: study = studied

Double the consonant and add –ed: monosyllables,

consonant + vowel + consonant

stop = stopped

Double the consonant and add –ed: more than 1 syllable,

consonant + vowel + consonant, last syllable is stressed

prefer = preferred

Double the “l”: travel = travelled

Irregular verbs are verbs that don’t end in –ed… you need to memorize these!

PAST SIMPLE: affirmative, negative or interrogative

• AFIRMATIVA:– He painted the wall– We woke up very early

• NEGATIVA:– He didn’t paint the wall– We didn’t wake up very early

• INTERROGATIVA:– Did he paint the wall?– Did we wake up very early?

PAST CONTINUOUS

Past tense of verb to be

• I was• He / She / It was• We / You / They were

+ verb-ing

How do we form the simple past tense?

He was playing golfThey were studying

PAST CONTINUOUS: affirmative, negative or interrogative

• AFIRMATIVA:– He was painting the wall– We were waking up very early

• NEGATIVA:– He wasn’t painting the wall– We weren’t waking up very early

• INTERROGATIVA:– Was he painting the wall?– Were we waking up very early?

Simple Past vs. Simple Past vs. PastPast

ContinuousContinuous

Simple Past vs. Simple Past vs. PastPast

ContinuousContinuous

Use the simple past for:

1) action that happened in the past and is . . .

over, done, finished

Use the past continuous for:

1) action that was in progress at a specific point in the past OR

2) focusing on an action that continued for a long time in the past

Simple Past (Examples)

Action that was completed in the past:

Tom went fishing last week.

I worked until 2:00 p.m. yesterday.

*Time Expressions frequently used with the simple past:yesterday, last ______, past dates (in 1990), _____ ago, etc.

Past Continuous (Examples)

Action that was in progress at a particular point in the past:

At 2:00 yesterday, Tom was playing soccer.

Sophia wasn’t home last night when I called her. I think she was working.

Action that continued for a long time in the past:

We were working all afternoon.

Construcciones con el pasado simple y el pasado continuo

juntos

• Se utilizan las conjunciones WHEN, WHILE, AS.1. Una acción breve (Simple Past) interrumpe a una

acción larga (Past Continuous)– John was watching TV when his friend arrived.2. Dos acciones largas (Past Continuous) ocurren al

mismo tiempo.- I was doing the washing up while my brother was

watching TV.3. Dos acciones cortas (Simple Past) que ocurren una

después de la otra.- When I heard the explosion, I phoned the police.