ASSISTANCE LEVEL 1, UNIT 10

DO YOU WANT TO PRACTICE CHAPTER  NINE?  

YOU CAN DO IT HERE.

VERB TO BE IN PAST

EXERCISE:

Exercise Was or Were?

Complete the sentences with was or were.

1. I waswere happy.
2. You waswere angry.
3. She waswere in London last week.
4. He waswere on holiday.
5. It waswere cold.
6. We waswere at school.
7. You waswere at the cinema.
8. They waswere at home.
9. The cat waswere on the roof.
10. The children waswere in the garden.

Mark wrong answers Replace wrong by correct answers Show all correct answers

SIMPLE PAST

WITH REGULAR VERBS

The past simple is the most common way of talking about past events or states which have finished. It is often used with past time references (e.g. yesterday, two years ago).

Please explain past events or states!

A past event could be one thing that happened in the past, or a repeated thing.

I stopped at a zebra crossing.
We carried on with the test.
We played tennis every day in August.

A state is a situation without an action happening.

We stayed at my grandparents' house last summer.

How do you form the past simple?

Regular past simple forms are formed by adding -ed to the infinitive of the verb.

start → started
kill → killed
jump → jumped

That seems easy!  

Yes, but there are some spelling rules. If a verb ends in -e, you add -d.

agree → agreed
like → liked
escape → escaped

If a verb ends in a vowel and a consonant, the consonant is usually doubled before -ed.

stop → stopped
plan → planned

If a verb ends in consonant and -y, you take off the y and add -ied.

try → tried
carry → carried        

But if the word ends in a vowel and -y, you add -ed.

play → played
enjoy → enjoyed

OK, not quite so easy! But the past simple form doesn't change at all for I, you, he, she, we and they, does it?

No, the form doesn't change. See, it is easy!

What about the pronunciation of the -ed ending?

There are three kinds of pronunciation: /d/, /t/ and /ɪd/. Look at the table below.

/d/	/t/	/ɪd/
arrived	asked	wanted
failed	crossed	decided
agreed	stopped	started

Aaagh! How do I know how to pronounce each one?

Good question. Well, really all you need to know is that /d/ is easier to say after arrive, and /t/ is easier to say after ask. For /ɪd/, the infinitive ends in a /d/ or a /t/ sound already so you must add an extra syllable for these verbs.

All right, that makes sense, but how do you form questions and negatives?

With the verb did (do in the past) + the infinitive.

Did you pass?
You didn't fail, did you?
Yes, I did. / No, I didn't.


Example: What did they call him? They called him Alex.

1	Where did ALex live?	He  in Kensington Avenue.
2	Where did Alex move from?	He  from Holland.
3	Where did Cathy work?	She  at Sainsbury`s.
4	What did Sylvia carry?	She  a big shopping bag.
5	What did the man order?	He  a pint of beer.
6	What did the women talk about?	They  about the weather.
7	What did the grocer charge for the apples?	He  30 pence for the apples.
8	How long did Peter work?	He  till 9 o`clock.
9	Where did the policeman wait?	He  in the car-park.
10	When did the plane land?	It  at 4 o`clock.