Practice Past Simple Tense | English Grammar Course

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Hi, everyone. I'm Esther.

In this first checkup, we'll take a look at

practice questions using the 'be' verb in the past simple tense.

Remember the 'be' verbs in the past simple tense arewasorwere’.

Let's take a look at the first sentence.

He __ at work earlier.’

The subject here iswe’. So do we usewasorwere’?

The correct answer iswas’. ‘He was at work earlier.’

The next sentence says,

We _____ very happy yesterday.’

If the subject iswe’, remember the be verb iswere’.

We were very happy yesterday.’

Next, ‘My parents or they __ worried about me.’

If it's 'they', remember we have to saywere’.

My parents were worried about me.’

If I want to use the negative, I can also sayMy parents weren't worried about me.’

And that's possible.

Now I want you to find the mistake in the next sentence.

We wasn't good students.’

We wasn't good students.

Can you figure out what's wrong?

The subject here iswe’, so we don't saywas not’.

We need to saywere notor the contractionweren't’.

We weren't good students,’ is the correct answer.

The next one says, ‘Were she a teacher?’

Now, this is a question so the be verb comes at the beginning.

That's correct, but the subject here isshe’.

Therefore, we need to start withwas’.

Was she a teacher?’

And finally,

They wasn't at school.’

The subject isthey’, so the answer is

They weren't at school.’

You can use the contractionweren'torwere not’.

Let's move on to the next checkup.

Now, let's practice regular verbs in the past simple tense.

Take a look at the first sentence.

He ____ at home.’

The verb isstudy’.

Remember, when changing a regular verb into

the past tense, we add ‘d’ oredto the end of the verb.

However, there's a separate rule for words that end in ‘y’.

Such as, ‘study’.

We drop the ‘y’ and we addied’.

So the correct answer is,

He studied at home.’

The next sentence says, ‘We __ pencils.’

We want to use negative because it saysnot use’.

Remember for the negative, we always usedid not’, no matter what the subject.

You can also use the contractiondidn't’.

Now, what do we do to the verb?

We keep it asis’. We do not change it.

We didn'torWe did notuse pencils.

The next sentence says, ‘His friends or they walk to the gym.’

What's the past tense ofwalk’?

We simply have to addedbecause it's a regular verb.

His friends walked to the gym.’

Now, find a mistake in the next sentence.

She didn't likes math.’

didn'tis correct.

However, remember we keep the verb asisin the base form.

So we don't saylikes’. We saylike’.

She didn't like math.’

The next sentence says, ‘Did it rained this morning?’

Now this is a question.

In a question, it's right to start the sentence withDid’.

Did it rained?’

Do you notice the mistake?

Remember, we do not use the past tense form in the question.

We use the base form of the verb.

Did it rain this morning?’

And finally, ‘They not play the piano.’

The verb is an action verb.

So we need adidin front ofnot’.

They did not play the piano.’

Let's move on to the next checkup.

Now, I'll talk about irregular verbs in the past simple tense.

Take a look at the first sentence.

He __ to school.’ And the verb isrun’.

runis an irregular verb, so the past tense form isran’.

He ran to school.’

The next sentence says, ‘We __ flowers.’

We want to use the negative because here it saysnot grow’.

Remember, no matter what the subject in the negative form,

we saydid not

ordidn't’.

Then we keep the verb in its base form.

We did not groworWe didn't grow flowers.’

The next sentence says, ‘Where __ you teach last year?’

This is a question.

Again, all we need to put isdid’.

Where did you teach last year?’

It doesn't matter what the subject is.

We always go withdid’.

Next, try to find the mistake in the next sentence.

He didn't sold newspapers.’

Remember, in the negative, ‘didn'tis correct for whatever subject there is.

However, we need to keep the verb in its base form.

So the correct answer is, ‘He didn't sell newspapers.’

The next sentence says, ‘Did she sing a song?’

You'll notice it's a similar problem here.

sangis the irregular past tense form ofsing’.

But in a question, if it starts withdid’,

we use the base form.

Did she sing a song?’

And finally, ‘We taked it home.’

Does that sound right?

takedis not correct.

The past tense oftakeistook’.

We took it home.’

Great job, everyone.

Let's move on.

Wow, we learned a lot in this video.

Keep studying and reviewing the past simple tense.

It's an essential tense that will help you talk about the past.

Keep studying English and I'll see you in the next video.

Bye.