2.1: Simple Past

Introduction to the Simple Past

From: Low Intermediate ESL Writing

Photo by Allyson Marceau

Read and Learn

The following paragraph tells a story that happened in the past. Such a paragraph is called narrative writing. Narrative writing tells a story in detail.

Lessons from a Fire

In 2001, something difficult happened to me, and I learned many lessons from it. While I was in St. Louis at a conference, I got a phone call from my landlady. She told me that there was a fire in my apartment building in Ypsilanti. Everything was damaged, but nobody was hurt. I was shocked by this news. A few hours later, someone from my church called to tell me that a close friend had just died. I knew I had to go home, see my burned home and attend a very sad funeral. I usually don’t talk to people on airplanes, but on the flight home, I told the woman sitting next to me about my bad news. Indeed, when I got home, my apartment was blackened with smoke damage. I stayed with a friend of mine and borrowed some clothes. The next day, I went to the funeral and mourned with my friends. At my church, I found six or seven bags of things that someone left for me: dishes, canned food, towels, clothes, and even some gift cards. In one of the cards, it said, “Good luck! Michelle.” I thought these gifts were from my friends, but I didn’t have any friends named Michelle. Then I realized who it was from. All of the gifts were from the woman on the airplane. This hard time taught me how good people can be and how important it is to be generous to strangers at just the right time.

PRACTICE 1:

Read the paragraph “Lessons from a Fire” and follow these instructions. Discuss your answers with a partner.

1. Underline all of the simple past verbs in the paragraph.

2. Circle the commas. How many commas are used because of the words “but” and “and”? Why are the other commas used?

Simple Past

The simple past verb tense is used to write about events that happened in the past and are complete. Simple past is an easy choice when the time of the event is given by some time expression. Here are some examples of past time expressions:

in [2012] in [May]

last [night, week, month, year] this morning yesterday

on [May 19, 2012] at [noon]

[two years, three months, a long time] ago When I [was a child],…

Regular verbs take an –ed ending to form the past tense. The spelling rules depend on the spelling and syllable stress of the verb.

1. Most regular verbs simply take –ed.

Examples: She worked. He turned left.

2. Verbs that end with e simply add –d.

Examples: We danced. We lived.

3. Verbs that end with a vowel (V) + y, just add –ed. Verbs that end with consonant (C) + y, drop the y and add ied.

They enjoyed the party. She carried the suitcase.

4. For one-syllable verbs that end V C, double the consonant. For one-syllable verbs that end with V C V, don’t double the consonant.

VC VCV

stop hope

We stopped for gas. They hoped to get a green card.

5. For two-syllable verbs that end with VC, double the consonant if the stress is on the second syllable. Do not double the consonant if the stress is on the first syllable.

VC (stress second syllable) VC (stress first syllable)

conTROL LISten

My boss controlled the operations. I listened to my boss.

PRACTICE 2:

Write the simple past verbs in the blanks. Use the correct spelling.

1. We _________________ (move) last year.

2. I _________________ (study) architecture.

3. Jasmin _______________________ (wait) a long time for her visa.

4. They _____________________ (save) a lot of money by using Craigslist.

5. She _____________________ (chop) vegetables for the soup. (Image 2)

6. We _______________________ (love) the movie that we saw last night.

7. Tom _______________________ (admit) that he was in love with Beth.

8. Something scary ______________________________ (happen) to me in 2016.

9. Last year, I _______________________(open) a bank account at PNC Bank.

10. I ________________________ (travel) a lot when I was a student.

Many verbs in English have irregular past tense forms. In the paragraph “Lessons from a Fire,” find the past tense forms of the following verbs. Write them next to the present tense forms.

PRESENT		PAST		PRESENT	PAST
am		___________________		have	___________________
is		___________________		go	___________________
are		___________________		find	___________________
get		___________________		leave	___________________
tell		___________________		say	___________________
know		___________________		think	___________________
				teach	___________________

Negative

Here are the negative forms of the simple past:

Be Verb I wasn’t hungry. She / He / It wasn’t hungry. You weren’t hungry. We weren’t hungry They weren’t hungry

Other Verbs I didn’t have time to say goodbye. She / He / It didn’t work. You didn’t work. We didn’t have time to say goodbye. They didn’t have time to say goodbye.

PRACTICE 3:

Rewrite the sentences using the simple past.

1. My grandma has heart surgery last winter.

____________________________________________________________________________

2. The doctors work for three hours.

____________________________________________________________________________

3. I visit my grandma in the hospital.

____________________________________________________________________________

4. I bring her flowers and a book.

____________________________________________________________________________

5. We aren’t sure how the surgery will go.

____________________________________________________________________________

6. Five days after the surgery, Grandma leaves the hospital.

____________________________________________________________________________

7. She makes a full recovery.

____________________________________________________________________________

8. In fact, she has more energy after the surgery.

____________________________________________________________________________

PRACTICE 4:

Fill in the tense verbs in the following paragraph.

Goodbye, Yellow Kite

When I was about seven years old, my family had (1. have) an interesting hobby: flying kites. My dad _________________ (2. buy) a lot of kites. Some kites _____________________ (3. be) cut in special shapes or had interesting pictures on them. My sister and I _______________ (4. tie) long tails and ribbons on our kites. My favorite kite _______________ (5. be) a beautiful yellow kite with a red tail. One very windy day, my dad _____________________ (6. drive) us to a park with a big hill. We all __________________ (7. fly) our kites in the strong wind on the top of the hill. I ________________ (8. let) out my string all the way and _________________ (9. hold) on tightly. I couldn’t even see the kite! When it was time to go, I _________________ (10. pull) on my string, but I just couldn’t bring that kite in. My dad _______________ (11. try) to help me, but the wind just ____________________ (12. keep) pulling the kite, almost out of our hands. Finally, my dad ________________ (13. cut) the string and let the kite go. I ____________________ (14. be) so upset that I _________________ (15. throw) myself down on the ground and cried. My family laughs now at my strong emotions. For me as a little girl, saying goodbye to my yellow kite was a very sad experience.

Questions

Yes/No Questions in Simple Past Tense

Structure	Example
Did + subject + base form of verb	Did you go to the store?
	Did they finish their homework?
	Did he call you yesterday?

Wh- (Information) Questions in Simple Past Tense

Structure	Example
Wh- word + did + subject + base form of verb	What did you do last night?
	Where did she go on vacation?
	How did they solve the problem?

Explanation:

• Yes/No Questions: Use "did" as an auxiliary verb followed by the subject and the base form of the main verb. This structure is used to ask questions that can be answered with yes or no.
• Wh- Questions: Start with a wh- word (interrogative pronoun or adverb), followed by "did," the subject, and then the base form of the main verb. These questions seek specific information such as who performed an action, what was done, where an action occurred, when it happened, why it occurred, or how it was done.

PRACTICE 5:

Grammar the Way You Like it-by Don Bissonett

Directions: Make Wh-questions using the simple past tense with the provided information below. Use one of the following Wh-question words: what, why, when, where, how, etc. There might be more than one correct answer for each number.

Example: (Jose) (get to school yesterday) ---> What time did Jose get to school yesterday? How did Jose get to school yesterday?

1. (Mr. and Mrs. Nguyen) (go on their last vacation) _______________________________________________
2. (Mary) (talk to this morning) _______________________________________________
3. (the baby) (cry) _______________________________________________
4. (you) (wake up this morning) _______________________________________________
5. (Tom) (get on his birthday) _______________________________________________
6. (Khuong) (drive to work with last weekend) _______________________________________________
7. (Ann) (work last summer) _______________________________________________
8. (the book) (cost) _______________________________________________
9. (Megan) (study for the final exam) _______________________________________________
10. (Minh) (eat for dinner last night) _______________________________________________

PRACTICE 6:

Group Practice-Speaking: The speaker will tell a story to a small group. If you can’t think of something that happened to you, tell a story about a friend or family member. When you speak, pay attention to your simple past verbs. The listeners will pay attention to the past tense verbs.

TO THE SPEAKER: Choose one of these, or just talk about something that you remember well.

1. something that happened that made you very happy

2. a birthday you remember well

3. the story of your journey to the U.S.

4. how you met your spouse (or how you got engaged)

5. a time you got into trouble as a child, or a time you were in trouble with the police

6. problems you had with animals

7. a great or terrible vacation

8. a time when someone helped you, or you helped someone else

9. a time when a natural disaster touched your life

For Homework: Choose one of the topics above and write a story in paragraph form (not a list of sentences.) Use the simple past tense in six or more sentences. Make at least one sentence negative.