Pasado Simple

sado simpleHow do we make the Simple Past Tense?
To make the simple past tense, we use:
* past form only
or
* auxiliary did + base form
Here you can see examples of the past form and base form for irregular verbs and regular verbs:
  | V1
base | V2
past | V3
past participle |   |
regular verb | work
explode
like | worked
exploded
liked | worked
exploded
liked | The pastform for all regular verbs ends in -ed. |
irregular verb | go
see
sing | went
saw
sang | gone
seen
sung | The past form for irregular verbs is variable. You need to learn it by heart. |
| You do not need the past participle form to make the simple past tense. It is shown here for completeness only. |   |
The structure for positive sentences in the simple past tense is:
subject | + |main verb |
  |   | past |
The structure for negative sentences in the simple past tense is:
subject | + | auxiliary verb | + | not | + | main verb |
  |   | did | | | | base |
The structure for question sentences in the simple past tense is:
auxiliary verb | + | subject | + | main verb |
did |   |   |   | base |
The auxiliary verb did is not conjugated. It is the same for allpersons (I did, you did, he did etc). And the base form and past form do not change. Look at these examples with the main verbs go and work:
  | subject | auxiliary verb |   | main verb |   |
+ | I |   |   | went | to school. |
| You |   |   | worked | very hard. |
- | She | did | not | go | with me. |
| We | did | not | work | yesterday. |
? | Did | you |   | go | to Paris? |
| Did |they |   | work | at home? |
Exception! The verb to be is different. We conjugate the verb to be (I was, you were, he/she/it was, we were, they were); and we do not use an auxiliary for negative and question sentences. To make a question, we exchange the subject and verb. Look at these examples:
  | subject | main verb |   |   |
+ | I, he/she/it | was |   | here. |
| You, we, they | were |  | in Quito. |
- | I, he/she/it | was | not | there. |
| You, we, they | were | not | happy. |
? | Was | I, he/she/it |   | right? |
| Were | you, we, they |   | late? |

How do we use the Simple Past Tense?
We use the simple past tense to talk about an action or a situation - an event - in the past. The event can be short or long.
Here are some short events with the simple pasttense:
The car exploded at 9.30am yesterday.
She went to the door.
We did not hear the telephone.
Did you see that car? |
past | present | future |
|   | |
|
The action is in the past. |   |   |
Here are some long events with the simple past tense:
I lived in Bangkok for 10 years.
The Jurassic period lasted about 62 million years.
We did not sing at the concert.
Did you watchTV last night? |
past | present | future |
|   | |
|
The action is in the past. |   |   |
Notice that it does not matter how long ago the event is: it can be a few minutes or seconds in the past, or millions of years in the past. Also it does not matter how long the event is. It can be a few milliseconds (car explosion) or millions of years (Jurassic period). We use the simple pasttense when:
* the event is in the past
* the event is completely finished
* we say (or understand) the time and/or place of the event
In general, if we say the time or place of the event, we must use the simple past tense; we cannot use the present perfect.

Here are some more examples:
* I lived in that house when I was young.
* He didn't like the movie.
* What did you eatfor dinner?
* John drove to London on Monday.
* Mary did not go to work yesterday.
* Did you play tennis last week?
* I was at work yesterday.
* We were not late (for the train).
* Were you angry?
Note that when we tell a story, we usually use the simple past tense. We may use the past continuous tense to "set the scene", but we almost always use the simple past tense...