Dave
4 giu 20213 min
Aggiornato il: 16 nov 2022
Past simple; Past continuous
Speaking: Look at each picture of Donny. Where is he?
Listen and check if you were right.
What news does Donny tell his mother?
Listen again and answer the questions below.
Past simple - Forms
In the past simple
we add -ed/-d to regular verbs:
want => wanted
hope => hoped
shop => shopped
call => called
like => liked
work => worked
Form summary of regular verbs
I phoned you.
She didn’t phone me.
Did you phone me?
DO YOU REMEMBER HOW TO PRONOUNCE THE -ED SOUND IN THE EXAMPLES
CALL >> CALLED
LIKE >> LIKED
WANT >> WANTED
I went to the cinema.
They didn’t go to the cinema
Did you go to the cinema?
some verbs are irregular and do not end in -ed/-d:
buy => bought
go => went
make => made
Use the QR code or click on the link for a list of irregular verbs
I was there.
They weren’t there.
Were you there?
To express the idea that an action started and finished at a specific time in the past.
I saw a movie yesterday.
Last year, I travelled to Japan.
She washed her car on Friday.
To list a series of completed actions in the past.
These actions happen 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, and so on.
I finished work, went home, and watched the tv.
He arrived from the airport at 8:00, checked into the hotel at 9:00, and met the others at 10:00.
A duration which starts and stops in the past.
often indicated by expressions such as:
for two years, for five minutes, all day, all year, etc
I lived in Brazil for two years.
Shauna studied Japanese for five years.
They sat at the beach all day.
To describe a HABIT which stopped in the past.
we often use expressions such as:
always, often, usually, never, when I was a child, when I was younger, etc.
I studied French when I was a child.
He played the violin.
She worked at the movie theatre after school.
They never went to school, they always skipped class.
To describe past facts or generalizations which are no longer true.
She was shy as a child, but now she is very outgoing.
People paid much more to make cell phone calls in the past.
We form the past continuous of all verbs with was/were + -ing:
I was having a coffee.
We weren’t having a coffee.
Were they having a coffee?
for an unfinished activity around a time in the past:
At nine o’clock I was sitting in the cinema.
Compare:
At 8.30 I sat down. (= one event at 8.30)
for a past activity beginning before a past event and continuing until or after it.
I was talking to the manager when you rang me.
Note how the past simple is used to talk about a completed past event that happened when another activity was in progress.
It started to rain while I was walking in the park.
I was watching TV when the phone rang.
Compare:
I left the cinema then I saw a notice.
for two activities at the same time in the past (often with while or and):
I was sitting near the ticket desk and the manager was talking.
I was having a coffee while I was waiting.