Examples:
I was tired.
You were tired/You’re tired.
She was tired/She’s tired.
Were you tired?
Was he tired?/ No, he wasn’t tired.
Were they tired?/No, they weren’t.
Past Simple Tense
The form is as follow:
Verb + ed
For irregular verbs however, the forms have to be memorized by heart.
I, you, we, they -> played
She, he, it -> played
I played the accordion well.
Niall and Harry played the accordion well.
My sister played the accordion well.
Irregular verbs examples:
Be -> was/were
Do/does -> did
Have/has -> had
Write -> wrote
Did you play BTS?
Did your sister play BTS?
Did she do her drawing?
I did not/didn’t jog just now.
Mother did not/didn’t jog.
1. Finished events in the past
2. Past habitual action
3. Events that were true for some time in the past
Spelling of verbs in past simple tense
Past Continuous Simple
Verb to be (in the past simple) + Verb-ing
Example:
Yesterday morning I was hanging my laundry when the postman came.
I was eating.
You/we/they were eating.
She/he/it was eating.
Was I eating?
Were you/we/they eating?
Was she/he/it eating?
I was not/wasn’t eating.
You/we/they were not/weren’t eating.
She/he/it was not/wasn’t eating.
1. We use the past continuous to say that somebody was in the middle of doing something at a certain time in the past.
Example: "This time yesterday, I was doing my homework."
2. We use the past continuous to say that something happened in the middle of something else: Example: "Bob burnt his hand when he was cooking dinner yesterday" "While I was working in the garden, I hurt my back."
Past Perfect Simple
Had + Verb in the past participle form
1. Used to show an action that was completed prior to another action that took place in the past.
Past Perfect Continuous
Had + Been + Verb-ing
1. We use the past perfect continuous to show that something started in the past and continued up until another action stopped it.
2. We use the past perfect continuous to show that something started in the past and continued up until another time in the past. In this case we use expressions of duration such as:
3. We use the Past Perfect Continuous before another action in the past to show cause and effect.
Assess yourself by staged practices