Class #10 - Simple Past

VOCABULARY

BENCH

THEY'RE ON A DATE

SHE'S EATING

ELDERLY WOMAN / YOUNG WOMAN

ICE CREAM

KNITTING

THE GIRL IS MEETING THE BOY

PARK

POPCORN

RAIN / IT'S RAINING

SHE'S SHY

STANDING / SITTING

ROCKING CHAIR

NEWSPAPER

SUNNY DAY

ZOO

LIKE IT WAS YESTERDAY

H: Gertrude.

G: Yes, Harold.

H: Do you remember when we were young?

G: Of course I do. I remember like it was yesterday.

H: I remember the day we met. You were fourteen. I was fifteen.

G: Actually, I was sixteen and you were seventeen.

H: I was?

G: Yes, you were.

H: You were beautiful.

G: Oh, no I wasn't.

H: Yes, you were Gertrude, you were very beautiful.

G: You were handsome.

H: Me? Handsome? No, I wasn't. I was nothing special.

G: That's not true. You were very handsome. And very special.

     I remember I was shy.

H: You weren't shy at all. You were very outgoing and very popular.

G: Oh, that's right. I was very popular. And you were very popular too. You were always very busy.

H: I was. I was always with my friends.

G: Do you remember our first date?

H: Of course. We went to the zoo.

G: No, we didn't. We went to the park.

H: We didn't go to the park Gertrude, we went to the zoo. I remember.

G: Harold, we went to the park. We sat on a bench in the park and we talked for hours and hours.

H: Gertrude, we didn't go to the park and we didn't sit on a bench. We went to the zoo and looked at the animals.

G: You're wrong, Harold. I remember. I remember like it was yesterday.

H: You know what? The zoo was in the park.

G: That's right! It was! We went to the zoo in the park.

H: We did. And we sat on a bench and we talked for hours and hours. 

G: We ate some ice cream. 

H: That's right. And we had some popcorn

G: That's right, we did.

H: It was a beautiful day.

G: Actually, it started to rain.

H: It didn't rain, it was sunny.

G: No, it wasn't Harold, it wasn't sunny. It rained.

H: It didn't rain, Gertrude. 

G: Yes, it did.

H: Well, maybe you're right. 

G: It doesn't matter. It was a very special day.

H: You're right, it was. I remember like it was yesterday.

GRAMMAR

The Simple Past Tense

English uses verbs in the simple past tense to refer to actions, situations, or events that are finished and that happened before now. There are three ways to form simple past tense in English. One way is what happens with the verb be: it uses the special forms was and were. 
Another way is what happens with regular verbs.
(They are called regular because they all add the same ending--ed--or some variation on it.)

Regular Verbs:

Regular verbs make their past tense by adding - d, - ed, or (if the verb ends in a consonant + y), changing the y to i and then adding - ed. Examples: Add -d:  baked, cared, eased, filed, greased, hated, liked, piled, raced, seized, smiled, typed, wheezed, whined Change y to i and add -ed: apply / applied; bury / buried; cry / cried; fry / fried; hurry / hurried; marry / married; pry / pried; spy / spied try / tried vary / varied worry / worried Add -ed:  other regular verbs: asked, belonged, clapped, dialed, filled, guessed, hopped, looked, marked, needed, pulled, reached, started, touched, viewed, washed, yelled, zipped

But there are a lot of irregular past tenses in English. Her are the most common irregular verbs in English, with their past tenses:

infinitive	irregular past
be begin break bring buy build choose come cost cut do draw drive eat feel find get give go have hear hold keep know leave lead let lie lose make mean meet pay put run say sell send set sit speak spend stand take teach tell think understand wear win write	was/were began broke brought bought built chose came cost cut did drew drove ate felt found got gave went had heard held kept knew left led let lay lost made meant met paid put ran said sold sent set sat spoke spent stood took taught told thought understood wore won wrote

 Use

We use the past tense to talk about:

• something that happened once in the past:

I met my wife in 1983.
We went to Spain for our holidays.
They got home very late last night.

• something that happened again and again in the past:

When I was a boy I walked a mile to school every day.
We swam a lot while we were on holiday.
They always enjoyed visiting their friends.

• something that was true for some time in the past:

I lived abroad for ten years.
He enjoyed being a student.
She played a lot of tennis when she was younger.

• we often use phrases with ago with the past tense:

I met my wife a long time ago.

Questions and negatives

We use did to make questions with the past tense:

When did you meet your wife?
Where did you go for your holidays?
Did she play tennis when she was younger?
Did you live abroad?

But look at these questions:

Who discovered penicillin?
Who wrote Don Quixote?

For more on these questions see question forms

We use didn’t (did not) to make negatives with the past tense:

They didn’t go to Spain this year.
We didn’t get home until very late last night.
I didn’t see you yesterday.

Class #9 - Past Tense of the verb to be

Vocabulary

BASEBALL GAME

PENNANTS

BALLPARK

GRANDPA / GRANDMA

MEETING

BIRTHDAY PARTY

Tommy: Hi, Jeff.

Jeff: Morning, Tommy.

Tommy: Jeff, can I ask you a question?

Jeff: Sure, Tommy.

Tommy: Were you at the ballgame last night?

Jeff: No, I wasn't. I was at the movies.

Tommy: Oh, I see. Was dad at my baseball game?

Jeff: No, he wasn't. He was at a meeting.,

Tommy: How about mom? Was she there?

Jeff: No, Tommy, she wasn't. She was at her computer class.

Tommy: How about Katie and Melissa? Were they at my game?

Jeff: No, they weren't. They were at Jennifer Anderson's birthday party.

Tommy: I can't believe it. Mom wasn't there, dad wasn't there, my sisters weren't there, my brother wasn't there... Nobody was at my ball game.

Jeff: That's not true Tommy.

Tommy: Huh?

Jeff: Somebody was at your ball game.

Tommy: Who?

Jeff: Grandma and Grandpa were there.

Tommy: They were?

Jeff: Yes, they were. 

And you know what they said? You were terrific.

Tommy: I was terrific?

Jeff: You were great!

Tommy: Yes!

Jeff: Hey, Tommy.

Sorry I wasn't there.

Tommy: That's ok. Next time.

Past Tense - Verb To Be

To Be - Affirmative

Subject	To Be	Examples
I	was	I was tired this morning.
You	were	You were very good.
He	was	He was the best in his class.
She	was	She was late for work.
It	was	It was a sunny day.
We	were	We were at home.
You	were	You were on holiday.
They	were	They were happy with their test results.

To Be - Negative Sentences

The negative of To Be can be made by adding not after the verb (was or were).

Subject	To Be	Examples
I	was not	I was not tired this morning.
You	were not	You were not crazy.
He	was not	He was not married.
She	was not	She was not famous.
It	was not	It was not hot yesterday.
We	were not	We were not invited.
You	were not	You were not at the party.
They	were not	They were not friends.

To Be - Negative Contractions

The can make negative contractions of the verb To Be in the Past tense by joining the verb (was or were) and n't (e.g. were not = weren't). We don't make a contraction of the subject and the verb (e.g. I was).

I was not tired this morning.	OR	I wasn't tired this morning.
You were not crazy.	OR	You weren't crazy.
He was not married.	OR	He wasn't married.
She was not famous.	OR	She wasn't famous.
It was not hot yesterday.	OR	It wasn't hot yesterday.
We were not invited.	OR	We weren't invited.
You were not at the party.	OR	You weren't at the party.
They were not friends.	OR	They weren't friends.

* Notice that we don't have contractions for To Be in Past Tense affirmative sentences.

To Be - Questions

To create questions with To Be, you put the Verb before the Subject.

Affirmative	You	were	happy.
	Subject	Verb
Question	Were	you	happy?
	Verb	Subject

Affirmative	Question
I was late	Was I late?
You were sick.	Were you sick?
He was surprised.	Was he surprised?
She was from Italy.	Was she from Italy?
It was a big house.	Was it a big house?
We were ready.	Were we ready?
You were early.	Were you early?
They were busy.	Were they busy?

To Be - Short Answers

In spoken English, we usually give short answers in response to questions.

Was he from Japan? - Yes, he was (from Japan). The last part (from Japan) is not necessary. We use shorts answers to avoid repetition, when the meaning is clear.

Question	Short Answers**	Short Answers
Was I late?	Yes, you were.	No, you weren't.
Were you sick?	Yes, I was.	No, I wasn't.
Was he surprised?	Yes, he was.	No, he wasn't.
Was she from Italy?	Yes, she was.	No, she wasn't.
Was it a big house?	Yes, it was.	No, it wasn't.
Were we ready?	Yes, we were.	No, we weren't.
Were you early?	Yes, we were.	No, we weren't.
Were they busy?	Yes, they were.	No, they weren't.

** With To Be, We don't use contractions in affirmative short answers.

Somebody, Someone, Anybody, Anyone etc.

There is no real difference between somebody and someone. Similarly, there is no difference between anybody and anyone, everybody and everyone or nobody and no one.

Note that the forms with body are a little more informal.

There is somebody at the door. (= There is someone at the door.)
Is there anybody? (= Is there anyone?)

Some- and any-

The difference between somebody and anybody, somewhere and anywhere and something and anything are the same as the difference between some and any.

The words somebody, something, somewhere etc., are used in affirmative clauses, whereas the words anybody, anything, anywhere etc., are used in negative and interrogative sentences.

There is somebody at the door.
Did anyone come?
I don’t want to go anywhere too expensive.
If you need anything just tell me.

When these words are used as subjects they are followed by singular verbs.

Everybody loves her.
Everything is ready.

Note that somebody is normally used to refer to only one person. To refer to more than one person, we use some people.

Somebody wants to meet you.
Some people want to meet you.

To refer back to somebody, anybody etc., they, them and their are used with singular meanings.

Nobody came, did they? (Here the pronoun they refers back to nobody.)
Somebody left their umbrella in the office. (Here the pronoun their refers back to somebody.)