Lesson 7

Past Simple – positive form

In this lesson, we’re going to learn about the past simple in the positive form. In lesson 8
we’ll move on to the negative and question forms of this tense.

This is what we’re going to cover in lesson 7:

 How to form the past simple

 The different verbs endings
 When to use the past simple
 Practice activities

How to form the past simple

First, how to form the past simple.

With regular verbs, the verb form stays the same whichever pronoun is used. In most
cases, we use the verb + -ed, or just -d if the verb ends in an ‘e’.

For example,

Positive form
verb + -ed (-d)

I walked along the road.

You walked along the road.

He walked along the road.

She walked along the road.

It walked along the road.

We walked along the road.

They walked along the road.

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 Practice the past simple

Complete these practice sentences using the regular verbs in brackets. The first one is
done for you as an example.

Practice

1. Nakeisha painted the wall blue. (paint)

2. They .................... a big pizza. (share)

3. My team .................... a great game of ....... (play)

4. Greta .................... to her friend on the phone. (talk)

5. I .................... up a steep hill. (cycle)

Scroll down to the next page for the answers.

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Answers

1. Nakeisha painted the wall blue.

2. They shared a big pizza.

3. My team played a great game of basketball.

4. She talked to her friend on the phone.

5. I cycled up a steep hill.

Double consonants
For some one-syllable regular verbs ending in a consonant, we double the consonant
before adding -ed. Examples include, stop, bag, rub, plan and clap.

So we get,

 I stopped smoking last year.

 He bagged up all the rubbish after the party.

 She rubbed her tired eyes.

 We planned our holiday over the weekend.

 They all clapped at the end of the performance.

Verbs with -y endings

Verbs ending in ‘y’ have their own set of rules.

The way the past tense is formed depends on whether the letter ‘y’ acts as a vowel or a
consonant, that is, it depends on its sound.

I’ll give you a few examples.

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Verbs ending in -y as a vowel sound include, cry and deny in which the ‘y’ is an ‘i’
sound, and copy and hurry in which it’s an ‘e’ sound.

In verbs such as stay, play, enjoy and annoy, the ‘y’ stays as a consonant, a ‘y’ sound
as in ‘yellow’.

Verbs ending in -y as a vowel sound Verbs ending in -y as a consonant

cry (i sound) stay

deny (i sound) play

copy (e sound) enjoy

hurry (e sound) annoy

These two sets of verbs have different endings in the past tense. Where ‘y’ acts as a
vowel, we replace it with -ied. Where ‘y’ acts as a consonant, we add -ed as with most
other regular verbs.

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 Practice -y endings

Practice these verb endings by completing the sentences using the past form of the
verbs in brackets.

Practice

1. Abeo really .................... (fancy) a girl he met at the dance.

2. We .................... (pray) that our father would recover from his heart attack.

3. We were so proud when our daughter .................... (qualify) as a teacher.

4. If he’d .................... (obey) the rules he wouldn’t have got into trouble.

Scroll down to the next page for the answers.

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Answers
1. Abeo really fancied a girl he met at the dance.

2. We prayed that our father would recover from his heart attack.

3. We were so proud when our daughter qualified as a teacher.

4. If he’d obeyed the rules he wouldn’t have got into trouble.

Irregular verbs
All the verbs we’ve looked at so far follow a typical pattern when changing form. That’s
why they’re called regular verbs – they follow a regular pattern.

Irregular verbs, on the other hand, do not follow a typical pattern when changing form.
In fact, many of them don’t seem to follow any pattern at all. You’ll need to learn them
as you go along and practice using them regularly.

Here are some common examples,

Verbs with an irregular past form

Present Simple Past Simple Present Simple Past Simple

bring  brought leave  left

come  came make  made

feel  felt run  ran

go  went say  said

have  had see  saw

know  knew take  took

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 Practice irregular verb endings

Practice forming the past tense of these irregular verbs by completing these sentences
using the verbs in brackets.

Practice

1. You .................... (make) lots of mistakes in your test.

2. I .................... (leave) home at 7.30 this morning.

3. She .................... (take) her sick dog to the vet.

4. Our cat .................... (have) five cute kittens.

Scroll down to the next page for the answers.

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Answers
1. You made lots of mistakes in your test.

2. I left home at 7.30 this morning.

3. She took her sick dog to the vet.

4. Our cat had five cute kittens.

The same present & past form

A few verbs keep the same form for the past tense, for example, cost, cut and hit.

So we say,

 cost

My new computer cost £499. (present simple)

Last week the same computer cost £599. (past simple)

 cut
She cut her finger on the knife. (present simple)
She cut the lawn yesterday. (past simple)

 hit
They hit their sales target. (present simple)
In the baseball match on Saturday, Jerry hit a home run. (past simple)

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Time expressions
It’s common to use time expressions with the past tense, such as,

 yesterday

 a few days / a week / a month / a year ago

 last night / Tuesday / weekend / week / month / year

 before e.g. I brushed my teeth before I went to bed.

Practice irregular verb endings

For some final practice forming the past simple in the positive form, complete these
sentences using the verbs in brackets.

Practice

1. We .................... (go) to the theatre last Friday evening.

2. I .................... (put) the kids to bed before going to work my nightshift.

3. They .................... (stay) in a really posh hotel in Dubai last year.

4. The washing .................... (dry) very quickly in the hot sun yesterday.

Scroll down to the next page for the answers.

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Answers
1. We went to the theatre last Friday evening.

2. I put the kids to bed before going to work my nightshift.

3. They stayed in a really posh hotel in Dubai last year.

4. The washing dried very quickly in the hot sun yesterday.

When to use the past simple

Now that you know how to form the past simple, let’s look at when you should use it.
We use the past simple in four main situations.

1) For single actions completed in the past.

The time may be specified.

 He fell and grazed his knee this morning.

 I went on holiday to Turkey last summer.

2) To relate a series of actions or events in the past in sequence, that is, the order in
which they happened. For example,

 The bird flew over our house, landed on the bird feeder and ate some seeds.

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Transitions words are often used to indicate the sequence of events, such as, first,
then, next, after that, later and finally.

 First, the bird flew over our house, then it landed on the bird feeder and after
that, it ate some seeds.

3) To talk about repeated actions that happened in the past.

 Back in the days when Esme raced competitively, she often came in the top
ten in major triathlon events.

 Mark played with his friends almost every day during the school holidays.

4) To relate long-term situations in the past that ended in the past.

 My grandparents lived in their old cottage for nearly 60 years.

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 Summary

That concludes our lesson on the positive form of the past simple. In the next lesson
we’ll explore the negative and question forms of this tense but first, here’s a summary of
what we’ve covered in this lesson.

We looked at:

1. How to form the past simple

2. The different verbs endings

3. When to use the past simple

4. Practice activities.

© IELTSJacky.com

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