## 2HV - Past simple

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You use the past simple if you want to talk about actions or events that happened at a certain time in the past. The action or event is finished. There is no connection with the present. The past simple is often used with the following words: last, ago, dates in the past (01-01-1999), yesterday (L.A.D.Y.).

I went to the zoo last Friday.

He was there two days ago.

The cubs were born on 2 February 2019.

Regular verbs are formed in the past simple by adding -(e)d to the verb.

We looked at the animals.

I waited in line.

The monkey climbed the tree.

Irregular verbs

As you know, you can turn a regular verb into the past simple by adding ‘-ed’. Irregular verbs don’t follow a specific pattern. They can, however, be placed in categories. This makes them easier to study.

Form stays the same

Some irregular verbs have the same form in the past simple. Examples are: cost, hurt, hit, let, put, beat.

He | hit | the ball.
The boy | hurt | another boy.
He | put | the drink down.

Consonant change

Sometimes the consonant changes in the past simple.

Examples are: lend/lent, send/sent, build/built.

He | sent | me a letter from Paris.
I | lent | some money to my brother.
We | built | a sandcastle.

Consonant added

Sometimes a -t or -d sound is added in the past simple.

Usually the vowels change too. Either the vowels are shortened or changed to a different vowel.

Examples are: feel/felt, leave/left, dream/dreamt, burn/burnt, sleep/slept, sell/sold, say/said.

The sun | felt | wonderful on my face.
We | left | the hotel early in the morning.
I | slept | for twelve hours.

-ought / -aught

Sometimes the form ends in -ought or -aught.

Examples are: bring/brought, think/thought, catch/caught, teach/taught.

I | thought | about my holiday in Greece.
We | caught | a fish at the campsite.
I | brought | some strawberries to the picnic.

vowel change

Sometimes the vowel changes.

Examples of vowel changes with -o are: break/broke, speak/spoke, stand/stood, forget/forgot.

I | forgot | to bring my sunglasses.

Examples of vowel changes with -e are: blow/blew, know/knew, fly/flew.

We | flew | to Rome yesterday.

Examples of vowel changes with -a are: begin/began, drink/drank, swim/swam, sing/sang, come/came.

He | drank | juice from a coconut.

Past simple 2HV