Gaspar I.

Melsin and Marc Vinent

The Past Simple

The Past Continuous
The Past Perfect Simple
Suffixes to Form Nouns
Gerund and Infinitive

Introduction
Positive Forms
Negative and questions
Use
Exercises

It all happened very quickly. The car

came straight out of the side road, and
the van went into the back of it. The van
driver didnt have a chance. It was the
car drivers fault.

A regular past form ends in ed.

I posted the letter yesterday.
We once owned a caravan.

Some verbs have an irregular past form.

I had breakfast at six.
We took some photos.

The past simple is the same in all persons

except in the past tense of be.

I/He/She/It was

You/We/They were

We use did in negatives and questions.

Negative

I/You/He/She/We/You/They didnt stop.

Question

Did I/You/He/She/We/You/They stop?

We use the past simple for something in

the past which is finished.
Emma passed the exam last year.
Elvis Presley died in 1977.
I knew what the problem was.

Introduction
Form
Use

I had a wonderful dream last night. I was

sitting in a park. The sun was shinning,
and the birds were singing. Children
were playing and laughing. It was very
peaceful. I didnt want to wake up.

The past continuous is the past tense of be +

an
-ing form

We/You/They were

Negatives

I/He/She/It was playing.

playing.

I/He/She/It wasnt playing. We/You/They werent

playing.

Questions

Was I/He/She playing? Were We/You/They playing?

Introduction
Form
Present Simple and Past Simple

I felt really tired when I took the train to

work yesterday because Sarah and I
have been to party before. We hadnt
gone to bed until after one. I hadnt
benn on the train long when I had a bit
of a shock. I suddenly realized that Id
left my wallet at home. Then I begun to
wonder. Had I left it in the office the day
before?

The past perfect is had + a past

participle.
He had enjoyed the party.
They hadnt gone to bed until late.

 Present Perfect
(before now)
My wallet isnt
here. Ive left it
behind.
The match is
over. United
have won.

Past Perfect
(before then)
My wallet wasnt
there. Id left it
behind.
The match was
over. United had
won.

We can add some terminations to form

new words. To create the nouns from the
verbs we use. ment, -tion/sion and er/or

Agree -> Agreement

Also, we add the sufixes ity, -ship, -ness

and ence/-ance to the adjectives,
another nouns and some verbs

Happy -> Happiness

We can use the ing form as a noun int he

next cases:
He loves sending Valentines cards.
You can ask for advice by writing a letter.
She doesnt mind expressing her feelings.
Finding solutions to some problems is not
easy.

Is the tense preceded by to and we used

this way:
Romeo and Juliet planned to get married
secretely.
We are happy to help you

Some perceptions verbs + make and

let make the infinitive without to.

I saw Eric leave the office.