Simple Past tense

Simple Past FORM
Subject+Verb+d/ed or irregular verbs
* Examples:
He called Ali .
Did he call Ali ?
He didnot call Ali .
* Complete List of Simple Past
Forms
¤ USE (1) : Completed Action
in the Past :
Use the Simple Past to
express the idea that an
action started and finished
at a specific time in the past .
Sometimes, the speaker
may not actually mention the specific time, but they
do have one specific time in
mind.
* Examples:
I saw a movie yesterday.
She didn't see a play yesterday.
Last year, We traveled to Japan .
Last year, They didn't travel to Korea .
Did you have dinner last night?
She washed her car.
He didn't wash his car.
¤ USE (2) : A Series of
Completed Actions :
We use the Simple Past to
list a series of completed
actions in the past. These
actions happen 1st, 2nd,
3rd, 4th, and so on .
* Examples:
I finished work, walked to the beach, and found a nice place to swim .
He arrived from the airport at 8:00, checked into the hotel at 9:00, and met the others at 10:00 .
Did you add flour, pour in the milk , and then add the eggs?
¤ USE (3) : Duration in Past :
The Simple Past can be used
with a duration which
starts and stops in the past .
A duration is a longer
action often indicated by
expressions such as :
for+time (two years , five minutes ... etc) ,
all day, all year, etc.
* Examples:
I lived in Brazil for two years.
Shauna studied Japanese for five years .
They sat at the beach all day.
They did not stay at the party the entire
time .
We talked on the phone for thirty
minutes .
A : How long did you wait for them ?
B : We waited for one hour.
¤ USE (4) : Habits in the Past :
The Simple Past can also be
used to describe a habit
which stopped in the past .
It can have the same
meaning as "used to" . To make it clear that we are
talking about a habit, we
often add expressions
such as: always, often,
usually, never, when I was
a child, when I was younger, etc.
* Examples:
I studied French when I was a child‏ ‏.
He played the violin‏ ‏.
He didn't play the piano.
Did you play a musical instrument when you‏ ‏
were a kid?
She worked at the movie theater after
‏ ‏school‏ ‏.
They never went to school, they always skipped class.
¤ USE (5) : Past Facts or
Generalizations :
The Simple Past can also be
used to describe past facts
or generalizations which
are no longer true .
As in
USE (4) above, this use of the
Simple Past is quite similar to the expression " used to."
* Examples:
She was shy as a child, but now she is very
outgoing.
He didn't like tomatoes before.
Did you live in Texas when you were a kid ?
People paid much more to make cell phone calls
in the past.
¤¤ IMPORTANT :
When-
Clauses Happen First : Clauses are groups of
words which have
meaning but are often not
complete sentences. Some
clauses begin with the
word "when" such as "when I dropped my
pen..." or "when class
began..." .. These clauses are
called when-clauses, and
they are very important.
The examples below contain when-clauses.
* Examples:
When I paid her one
dollar, she answered my question.
She answered my
question when I paid her one dollar .
¤ When-clauses are
important because they
always happen first when
both clauses are in the
Simple Past. Both of the
examples above mean the same thing : first, I paid her
one dollar, and then, she
answered my question . It is
not important whether
"when I paid her one
dollar" is at the beginning of the sentence or at the
end of the sentence .

However, the example
below has a different
meaning : First, she
answered my question, and then, I paid her one
dollar.
Example:
I paid her one dollar when she answered
my question ..
¤ Use (6) : If II Clauses :
* Example :
If I were you , I wouldn't marry her .
¤ Key words :
yesterday .. Time + ago ( a yeas ago , three days ago ... etc) .. in the past .. Last + time (last month , last year, last night ... etc) .. The other day .. When .. If II ..
¤¤ Spelling rules for the past simple of regular verbs:
* if a regular verb ends in consonant + y change y to i and add -ed : carry - carried, study - studied , fry - fried, try - tried
* if a one syllable regular verb ends in consonant + vowel + consonant double the final consonant and add -ed -- > stop - stopped , plan - planned , rob - robbed , beg - begged
* if a regular verb has more than one syllable and ends in consonant + vowel + consonant , we double the final consonant only if the final syllable is stressed -- > preFER - preferred, regRET - regretted
* Exception:
In British English verbs ending in -l have -ll before -ed whether the final syllable is stressed or not -- > trave l - travelled
¤¤ Pronunciation of final "- ed" (regular verbs):
* after an unvoiced consonant sound (sh/ s / ch / p / k / f ) we pronounce /t/ :
wash (/ sh/) - washed (/t/) ; kiss (/ s/) - kissed (/t/) ; work (/ k/) - worked (/t/) ; hope (/ p/) - hoped (/t/) ; laugh (/ f/) - laughed (/t/)
* after a vowel and voiced consonant sounds we pronounce / d/:
phone (/n/) - phoned (/d/); judge (/dg/) - judged (/d/); turn (/n/) - turned (/d/); play (/ei/) - played (/d/); follow (/ou/) - followed (/d/)
* after /t/ and /d/ sounds we pronounce /-id/ :
visit (/ t/) - visited (/id/); start (/ t/) - started (/id/); need (/ d/) - needed (/id/) . .