Simple Past

What did you do yesterday?

Yesterday was the best day of my life!! I went with my best friend to our favorite restaurant. It was a nice night and we talked about our boring jobs. What we didn’t know was that our lives were going to change as we ran into one of his cousins who works for an important company. He listened our conversation and said he would pay for our dinner and he invited us to a party with his close friends. My friend and I agreed to go with him and when we got his home there were a lot of people. I spoke with important members of his company who asked me a lot of questions. Long story short, I got a job interview for tomorrow! I think I’ll be the company’s new marketing manager!!!

Today is a great day! And as you could read today’s topic is Simple Past Tense also known as Past Simple. We use Simple Past to talk about actions or events that happened in the past. There are a lot of things to remember when using this tense but from my personal point of view the most important is: Learning the verbs.

Regular verbs just acquire –ed at the end of the base form, for example:

• I lived there for two years.
• She worked hard last night.
• We listened to that song already.
• It snowed last weekend.

Irregular verbs change their form, for example:

• He ran outside the bookstore.
• They took the first flight to London.
• I had a nightmare yesterday night.
• We ate the entire pizza!

Probably you have heard it and even use it, let’s see its usage. We use Simple Past:

To talk about completed actions in the past

I did my homework

He took a shower

To talk about a series of repeated actions in the past

First I had breakfast, I went to work and stayed there for 6 hours after work, I had dinner.

To talk about past habits

When I was 10, I often played in the park.

My mother used to cook pancakes for breakfast.

STRUCTURE

Positive: 

Subject + Verb in past + Complement

He did his duties.

Negative:

Subject + Didn't + Verb in base form + Complement

We didn't go to school today.

Closed question:

Did + Subject + Base form verb + Complement + ?

Did you answer the phone?

Opened question:

WH+ Did + Subject+ Base form verb + Complement +?

Why did they cancel the flight?

Negative Question:

Didn´t + Subject + Base form verb + Complement + ?

Didn't she call you already?

Tell me What did you do for the last 5 hours?

If you are interested on clarifying this topic, please watch my video and don’t forget to subscribe: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RsvzJZ9fFHE&t=23s

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