Learning the Past Simple Grammatical Structure

1. DEPARTAMENTO UNIVERSITARIO DE INGLES
Past Simple
Tense

2. SIMPLE PAST TENSE
The Past Simple is a verb tense that is
used to describe actions that happened in
the past and they have finished, for
example:
She cleaned her house.
I broke the window.

3. VERBO TO BE
• I } was
• He } was
• She } was
• It } was
• We } were
• You } were
• They } were

4. INTERROGATIVE FORM
Was/Were+ Pronoun+ Complement+?
Short Yes/No + pronoun+ was/wasn’t/were/weren’t
Answers
EXAMPLE:
Was she at school yesterday?
Yes, she was/ No, she wasn’t

5. AFFIRMATIVE FORM
Pronoun + was/were + complement
She was at home yesterday.

6. NEGATIVE FORM
Pronoun + wasn’t/weren’t +
complement
She wasn’t at home yesterday.

7. AUXILIAR
(?) “DID” I, HE, SHE, IT, WE, YOU, THEY
(-) DIDN’T
+ REGULAR VERB ADD “ED”
CLEAN CLEANED
IRREGULAR VERB VERB CHANGES
GO WENT
DO DID

8. INTERROGATIVE FORM
Did+ Pronoun+ verb + Complement+?
Short Yes/No + pronoun+ did/didn’t
Answers
EXAMPLE:
Did she walk to school yesterday?
Yes, she did/ No, she didn’t

9. AFFIRMATIVE FORM
Pronoun + verb + complement
She walked to school yesterday.

10. NEGATIVE FORM
Pronoun + didn’t + verb+ complement
She didn’t walk to school yesterday.

11. There are also words that indicate when the
action took place, example:
last, yesterday, before, past, ago, etc

12. To form a positive sentence you must identify
the two types of verbs
REGULAR VERBS AND IRREGULAR VERBS
The regular verbs are formed by adding ed
WHILE THE irregular receive this name
because they do not follow a certain pattern.
Therefore, they must be learned.