Past simple and Past continuous

We use past simple for:

• Completed actions at a specific time in the past. example: I bought three CDs yesterday.


• Completed situations and statesin the past. example: I had green hair for a while as a teenager.


• Repeated actions in the past. example: We played football every saturday.


• The main events and situations in a story. example: I ran out of the house, crossed the road and jumped on the bus.

Regular verbs

positive = subject + bare infinitive + -ed.

example: appear........:I/you/he/she/we/they appeared.

negative = subject + did not (didn´t) + bare infinitive.

example: I/you/he/she/we/they didn´t appear.

questions form = Did + subject + bare infinitive.

example: Did I/you/he/she/we/they appear?

Irregular verbs

The negative and questions form for irregular verbs are the same as for regular verbs.

positive: Inga went to London.

negative: Inga didn´t go to London.

questions form: Did Inga go to London?

The only exception is the verb to be:

positive: You were in London./ Inga was in London.

negative: You were not (weren´t) in London./ Inga was not (wasn´t) in London.

questions form: Were you in London?./ Was Inga in London?

Emphatic past simple

We can use the emphatic past simple to emphasise an action or situation in the past, particularly to emphasise that it actually happened, or that it´s different to what someone else thinks.

Emphatic past simple = subject + did + bare infinitive.

past simple: I know you don´t believe me but I saw a ghost.

emphatic past simple: I konw you don´t believe me but I did see a ghost.

NOTE: WE CAN´T USE THE EMPHATIC PAST SIMPLE WITH THE VERB TO BE.

Brian Rueda P.