The Past Simple Tense: regular verbs

Hello, boys and girls! My name is Bobby.

And my name is Tobby. This is our friend Mobby.

Welcome to our lesson.

Today we have a guest.

It’s our friend Edward.

Hi, everyone!

Edward, you look so sad. Is something wrong?

Oh, guys, yesterday we wrote a dictation and I got a bad mark.

That’s not good, but don’t worry! I think your teacher will let you rewrite it.

Yeah, I think so too!

Guys, I’m not sure that I’ll get a better mark.

Well… In this case, let’s look through your dictation.

When we see your mistakes, we will understand what rule you don’t know.

Oh, that’s a great idea!

All right! Let’s read your dictation.

“Mary livet in Paris ten years ago. She workd as a teacher there. Her flat was near the Eiffel Tower, so she could see it from her window. Mary’s flat mate Lucien was a painter. Mary askd him to paint the Eiffel Tower for her. Lucien agreed and paintid a beautiful picture for Mary. The woman was really happy!”

Now let’s look through all the mistakes. The 1^st mistake is in the word “livet”. You needed to write “d” in the end. The 2^nd mistake is in the word “workd”. Here you missed the letter “e”. The 3^rd mistake is in the word “askd”. Here you also missed the letter “e”. And the last mistake is in the word “paintid”. Here you needed to write “ed” in the end.

Boys, I don’t understand! I’m sure that I wrote the dictation without any mistakes.

Oh, no, Edward! You’re wrong!

You made four mistakes in your dictation.

And all these mistakes are connected to the Past Simple Tense.

Oh, boys, what should I do? I know nothing about this rule.

Don’t worry, Edward!

We will explain this rule to you!

Oh, guys, I really appreciate that!

All right! Let’s start.

So today in the lesson we will:

talk about regular verbs in the Past Simple Tense;

discuss when this tense can be used;

learn how to form sentences in the Past Simple Tense;

And

put the knowledge into practice.

First of all, you need to know that English verbs can be:

Regular (the translation is “правильные”)

And

Irregular (the translation is “неправильные”).

And as we’ve already said, today we are going to talk about regular verbs in the Past Simple Tense. But before we do that, let’s answer the question: “When do we use the Past Simple Tense?”

We use the Past Simple Tense when we want to describe actions, which happened in the past. They are completed.

For example:

Cody decorated the Christmas tree two days ago.

Or

Wendy washed the dishes yesterday.

This tense can be used when we talk about a series of completed actions in the past.

For example:

First, Veronica got up, then she had breakfast.

Or

On Sunday Emily vacuumed the floor, then she fed her dog.

Now let’s answer the following question: “How do we form sentences with regular verbs in the Past Simple Tense?”

To form positive sentences, we put the subject in the first place. Then we put the verb with the ending -ed.

For example:

James watched TV yesterday.

Zoe played the violin last Monday.

Or

Kim listened to music two days ago.

To form negative sentences, we put the subject in the first place, then we use the auxiliary verb “did” with the particle “not”. The short form is “didn’t”. After that we put the base form of the verb.

For example:

James didn’t watch TV yesterday.

Zoe didn’t play the violin last Monday.

Or

Kim didn’t listen to music two days ago.

And to form questions, we put the auxiliary verb “did” in the first place. Then we put the subject. After that we need to use the base form of the verb.

For example:

Did James watch TV yesterday?

Did Zoe play the violin last Monday?

Or

Did Kim listen to music two days ago?

Boys and girls, as we’ve already said, the regular past simple forms are formed by adding the ending -ed to the verb.

But there are some spelling rules, which you also need to know:

When the verb ends with the letter “e”, we need to add the ending -d to it.

For example:

Live – lived

Like – liked

Hate – hated

Arrive – arrived

When the verb ends with a consonant and the letter “y”, we need to change “y” to the letter “i” and then add the ending -ed.

For example:

Carry – carried

Study – studied

Cry – cried

Marry – married

When the verb ends with a vowel and the letter “y”, we just need to add the ending -ed.

For example:

Play – played

Enjoy – enjoyed

Destroy - destroyed

Pray – prayed

And

When the verb ends with one vowel and one consonant, we need to double the consonant and add the ending -ed.

For example:

Stop – stopped

Hug – hugged

Chat – chatted

Flip – flipped

Edward, we’ve told you when the Past Simple Tense is used.

We’ve also told you how to form sentences with regular verbs in the Past Simple Tense.

Now we will tell you what time markers we use in this tense.

In the Past Simple Tense we use the following time markers:

Yesterday (вчера)

Ago (назад)

For example: 5 days ago, 3 weeks ago.

And

Last (на прошлой, в прошлом)

For example: last week, last year.

Edward, we’ve told you everything you need know about regular verbs in the Past Simple Tense.

Now we would like to check your knowledge.

Your task is to complete the sentences with the verbs in the Past Simple Tense.

And the sentences are:

Kate (to help) her mum in the kitchen.

Cody (to study) in his room.

My dad (to wash) the red car.

Lily (to listen) to music.

My uncle (to arrive) very late.

Sam (to marry) a pretty woman.

The baby (to cry) a lot.

Let’s check the right answers.

helped

studied

washed

listened

arrived

married

cried

Well done, Edward! Now you know everything about regular verbs in the Past Simple Tense.

Yes, it’s true! And I think that I’ll get a good mark tomorrow.

Oh, we are glad to hear that! 

Thank you, guys!

You’re welcome, Edward!

That’s all for today, our dear friends!

See you soon.