PAST SIMPLE AND CONTINUOUS

PAST SIMPLE AND CONTINUOUS

Hello learner! In this post I am going to explain how to use the 'Past Simple and Continuous', I will also teach you when they are used, how the verb 'TO BE' and 'TO DO' are formed in the past tense and some tips to identify when 'Past Simple' and 'Past continuous' are used when they appear in the same sentence.

At the end of the post I leave you a worksheet to practice what you have seen and a list of irregular verbs. If you like it and it is useful to you, subscribe so you don't miss any more content and share it with whoever you think might find it useful. 

WHEN DO YOU USE THEM?

Past grammatical forms are used to talk about events that occurred in the past, however, when do we use 'Past Simple' or 'Past Continuous'? 

'Past Simple' is used for actions that started and ended in the past, routines and habits you had in the past, and actions that occur one after another in the past. On the other hand we have the 'Past Continuous', which is used for actions from the past that are in process and temporary actions from the past.

Past Simple and Continuous

¿PAST SIMPLE OR CONTINUOUS?

Can 'Past Simple' and 'Past Continuous' be used at the same time? Well yes, they can be used in the same sentence, in fact there is a little trick that will help us differentiate when one or the other is used. If we find them in the same sentence, it is because we want to say that something was developing in the past and another action cuts it off. Ex: 'I was walking down the street when I saw her'

The trick comes here, the past simple and continuous are usually separated by 'When' and 'While', which mean when and while respectively. When we use 'When', we will put the simple past right after it. While when we use 'While', we will put the past continuous after.

HOW ARE THEY FORMED?

PAST SIMPLE

The 'Past Simple' is formed using the verb in the past, in affirmative sentences, and the auxiliary verb 'TO DO' in the past plus the verb in the infinitive in negative and interrogative sentences.

To make the negative and interrogative forms, the auxiliary verb 'TO DO' is used in the past tense and the verb is left in the infinitive.

AFFIRMATIVE:

Subject + Verb in past +…

Ex: I studied English.

NEGATIVE:

Subject + Auxiliary Verb in the past + NOT + Verb in the infinitive +…

Ex: I didn’t study English.

INTERROGATIVE: 

Auxiliary verb in past + Subject + Verb in infinitive +…?

Ex: Did you study English?

PAST CONTINUOUS

To form the'Past Continuous', the verb 'TO BE' is used, as an auxiliary verb, in the past plus the corresponding verb adding '-ing' at the end.

To form negative and interrogative sentences, the auxiliary verb 'TO BE' will also be used in the past tense.

AFFIRMATIVE:

Subject + Auxiliary Verb in the past + Verb -ing + …

Ex: I was studying English.

NEGATIVE:

Subject + Auxiliary Verb in the past + NOT + Verb -ing +…

Ex: I was not studying English.

INTERROGATIVE: 

Past Auxiliary Verb + Subject + Verb -ing + …?

Ex: Were you studying English?

TO DO = HACER

'TO DO' is the verb used to make the negative and interrogative sentences of the 'past simple'. I leave you the way to conjugate it according to the subject.

THE VERB 'TO DO', WHEN PUT IN THE PAST, IS CONJUGATED AS 'DID' FOR ALL SUBJECTS

 

TO BE = SER/ESTAR

The verb 'TO BE' is used with the meaning ser and estar, as well as as an auxiliary verb to form the affirmative, negative and interrogative sentences of the 'past continuous'. Next, I leave you the way to conjugate it according to the subject.

YOU

HE/SHE/IT

WE

YOU

THEY

 

WAS

WERE

WAS

WERE

WERE

 WERE

 

REGULAR AND IRREGULAR VERBS

Forming regular verbs in the 'Past Simple' is, a priori, a simple task, since you only have to add '-ed' to the end of the verb, for example: 'Turn' -> 'Turned'. Easy, right? Well, not all regular verbs add '-ed' and that's it, since not all of them end the same. I leave you here how to form regular verbs according to the ending of each one:

  • Cuando el verbo termina en ‘-y’ se le quita y se añade en su lugar ‘-ied’:
    • Try -> Tried
    •  Study -> Studied
  • No obstante, si el verbo termina en vocal + ‘-y’ se añade ‘-ed’ :
    • Play -> Played
    • Enjoy -> Enjoyed
  • ¿Qué pasa si el verbo termina en ‘-e’? Pues simplemente le añadimos la ‘-d’:
    • Like -> Liked
    • Bake -> Baked 
  • En cambio, si termina con vocal y consonante, la última consonante, antes de ‘-ed’, se dobla:
    • Stop -> Stopped
    • Plan -> Planned
  • Como excepción, comentar que si el verbo termina en vocal + consonante, pero la acentuación está en la primera sílaba no se dobla la consonante:
    • Visit -> Visited
    • Listen -> Listened

When we talk about irregular verbs, there is no specific way to form them, so I leave you a list here so that you can see some of the most used irregular verbs.

By clicking on the same title, you will find a file created by me to work on what was seen above. This link redirects you to Liveworksheet where you can do the sheet online or download it in pdf.

If you want to find more information to learn English quickly, easily and for free, I recommend you follow this link where you will find all the posts related to learning English that I have uploaded so far.

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