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Simple Past


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FORM Simple Past

[VERB+ed]

EXAMPLES:

I visited my friends.

I often visited my friends.

NOTE: When you are using a verb tense with only one part such as Simple Past (visited), adverbs usually come before the verb (often visited). Please remember this is different from verbs with more than one part such as Present Continuous.


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USE 1 Completed Action in the Past

Use the Simple Past to express the idea that an action started and finished at a specific time in the past. Sometimes the speaker may not actually mention the specific time, but they do have one specific time in mind.

EXAMPLES:

I saw a movie yesterday.

I didn't see a movie yesterday.

Last year, I traveled to Japan.

Last year, I didn't travel to Japan.

She washed her car.

She didn't wash her car.


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USE 2 A Series of Completed Actions

We use the Simple Past to list a series of completed actions in the past. These actions happen 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th...

EXAMPLES:

I finished work, walked to the beach, and found a nice place to swim.

He arrived from the airport at 8:00, checked into the hotel at 9:00, and met the others at 10:00.


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USE 3 Single Duration

The Simple Past can be used with a duration which starts and stops in the past. A duration is a long action often used with expressions like "for two years," "for five minutes," "all day" or "all year."

EXAMPLES:

I lived in Brazil for two years.

Shauna studied Japanese for five years.

They sat at the beach all day.

We talked on the phone for thirty minutes.

How long did you wait for them?
We waited for one hour.


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USE 4 Habit in the Past

The Simple Past can also be used to describe a habit which stopped in the past. It can have the same meaning as "used to". To make it clear that we are talking about a habit we often use expressions such as "always," "often," "usually," "never," "...when I was a child" or "...when I was younger" in the sentence.

EXAMPLES:

I studied French when I was a child.

He played the violin.

She worked at the movie theater after school.

They never went to school, they always skipped.


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IMPORTANT "When clauses" happen first

Clauses are groups of words which have meaning but are not complete sentences. Some clauses begin with the word when such as "When I dropped my pen..." or "When class began..." These clauses are called "when clauses" and they are very important. The examples below contain "when clauses."

EXAMPLES:

When I paid her one dollar, she answered my question.

She answered my question, when I paid her one dollar.

"When clauses" are important because they always happen first when both clauses are in the Simple Past. Both of the examples above mean the same thing. First, I paid her one dollar, and then, she answered my question. However, the example below has a different meaning. First, she answered my question, and then, I paid her a dollar.

EXAMPLE:

I paid her a dollar, when she answered my question.

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ACTIVE / PASSIVE Simple Past

EXAMPLES:

Tom repaired the car. ACTIVE

The car was repaired by Tom. PASSIVE

The Past Simple Tense

The simple past is a tense used to describe complete actions or events that took place in some time before now. The time can be specified by using some adverbs, for example: yesterday, last night, last week, last month, last year, and so on. It is important to keep in mind that the formation of this tense is different if you are working with the verb to be or if you are working with the rest of the verbs. Let's begin then with the verb To Be. Although the past form of the verbs is the same for all the personal pronouns, the verb "to be" has two forms:

? I was
? he was
? she was
? it was
? you were
? they were
? we were
? you were

WAS for I, he, she, it and WERE for we, you , they. Look at these examples:

? She was worried about her grades in school.
? Maurice and Martha were in Washington last week.
? Joseph was very tired, but now he is fine.
? Last christmas we were in my grandma's house.
? Yesterday they were very busy.

Remember that the past tense of "to be" follows the same structure we explained before. So, when you want to turn these sentences into questions you have to do the same changes you do for the present tense. Look:

? Was she worried about her grades in school?
? Were Maurice and Martha in Washington last week?
? Was Joseph was very tired?
? Were they in your grandma's house last christmas?
? Were they very busy yesterday?

In the same way, if you want to change an affirmative sentence to negative you just have to add the negative particle not after the verb "to be":

? She was not worried about her grades in school.
? Maurice and Martha were not in Washington last week.
? Joseph was not very tired, but now he is.
? Last christmas we were not in my grandma's house.
? Yesterday they were not very busy.

Remember that the contractions of the verb "to be" and the negative word not are common in spoken language.
The past tense for the other verbs in English is a little more complicated. Some are regular verbs and follow one rule. Others are irregular verbs and their forms are very different from the infinitive.
It requires that you learn the past form of every verb.

Let's begin with the regular verbs:

These verbs form their past by adding the particle -ed at the end of the infinitive. For example:

? want -------> wanted
? copy -------> copied
? sign -------> signed
? fade -------> faded
? watch -------> watched

Now, see the verbs in context:

? My mother and her sister wanted to go shopping yesterday.
? She copied many things and now she does not have money.
? You signed a contract with a very important company. Congratulations!
? The snow flakes faded slowly.
? My family always watched "The Wonder Years".

You already know that to make interrogative sentences we need an auxiliary. In the present we used DO and DOES For the past tense we use DID:

? Did your mother and her sister want to go shopping yesterday?
? Did she copy many things and now she does not have money?
? Did you sign a contract with a very important company? Congratulations!
? Did the snow flakes fade slowly?
? Did your family always watch "The Wonder Years"?

Just apply the structure of the present tense to the past to form negative sentences:

? My mother and her sister did not want to go shopping yesterday.
? She did not copy many things and now she has money.
? You did not sign a contract with a dishonest company. Congratulations!
? The snow flakes did not fade slowly.
? My family did not watch "Pokemon".

Do not forget that when you use an auxiliary the main verb remains unchanged.
It is time now to see what happens to irregular verbs. Basically, they follow the same structure of the regular verbs, but you cannot just add -ed to the infinitive. These verbs have their own form for the past:

? write -------> wrote
? see -------> saw
? bring -------> brought
? take -------> took
? sing -------> sang
? come -------> came

USES OF THE SIMPLE PRESENT TENSE

a) Completed Action In The past

Simple past tense bir eylemin geçmişte bilinen (specific) bir zamanda yapılıp, tamamlandığını gösterir. Simple Past Tense en çok bu amaç için kullanılır.

? I saw a movie yesterday.
? I didn?t go to work last Friday.
? Last year, I traveled to China.
? The World War II ended in 1945.
? She washed the dishes this morning.

b) A series of Completed Actions

Simple Past Tense geçmişte yapılmış bir dizi, ardışık eylemden bahsederken kullanılır.

? I finished work, went home, had a shower and went to bed early.
? He arrived from the airport at 9:00,checked into the hotel at 10:00, and met the others at 11:00.

c) Single Duration

Simple past tense geçmişte başlayıp ve bitmiş olan bir eylemin ne kadar süre ile yapıldığından bahsederken kullanılır. Eylemlerin şimdiki zamanda bir geçerliliği kalmamıştır.

? I lived in Istanbul for 5 years, from 1990 to 1995. ( I don?t live there anymore)
? Jane studied Chinese for 3 years.
? We talked on the phone for 30 minutes.
? How long did they wait for the bus?

d) Habits in the past

Simple past tense geçmişte düzenli olarak yapılan ,fakat artık geçerli olmayan eylem ve davranışlardan bahsederken kullanılır. Bu kullanım ? used to ? ile aynı anlamdadır. Bu anlatımlarda cümlelerde genellikle "often," "usually," "never," "...when I was a child" or "...when I was younger" gibi zarf yapıları yer alır..


? My father took me to the Luna park every Sunday.
? He played the piano whenever he was at home.
? He usually worked at a restaurant after school.


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