The simple past or past simple verb form appears 28% of the time in spoken and written English,
it's the second most common verb form that we use. So you could say,
it's pretty important to get it right.
Hi, I'm Mark. I'm one of the expert English teachers here at E2 English. Now, in today's
lesson, we're going to look at why the past simple is so important. Then we'll look at how we use it,
how we speak it, and a few tips on how you can practice it and make sure you get it right.
And before I teach you about the past simple, I'm going to tell you a little bit about me.
I grew up in Canada. I went to university in Germany. I moved to Australia.
And I joined E2 earlier this year. And now I'm ready to teach you about the past simple.
So let's talk about this. First, why is the past simple, so important? Well, we need it to more
accurately describe the past. And do you remember what I said before about my life, I grew up in
Canada, I moved to Australia, I needed to use the past simple in order to clearly and accurately
give you important information about my life. So imagine you meet someone for the first time,
you are absolutely going to need this grammar, the past simple to deliver that information to them.
Also, if you're planning to be able to use complex grammar later, you will definitely need to have
the simple past under control. Well remember 28.5% of the verbs we use are past simple.
So that means if you use four verbs, at least one of them is going to be in the past simple.
Now, I also have to warn you Be very careful here. You're possibly thinking, I know this grammar,
I've studied it, but you have to be very careful. This is one of the most common grammatical errors
that I hear as an English teacher. Even as an IELTS teacher and an IELTS examiner
years ago, this was a very common problem for students trying to get a high score.
So even if you know the grammar, you must be very careful and ask yourself, but do I use
it consistently when I'm speaking? So remember, don't know the grammar, Make the grammar a habit.
And don't worry, we've got you covered. Down below you'll find a PDF that will go over all the rules
of the past simple and give you a few exercises you can do to help you internalise the grammar.
Just click the link below and you can get started. Now, why do we use the past simple.
The basic use is to more accurately show a complete action in the past. In this example,
I walked home from work yesterday. Now let's take a closer look and see what it looks like.
Staying with the basic use. You can see here more completed actions. Yesterday, I watched a movie
10 years ago, I finished university or even in the last one this morning, I woke up at 6am.
Now you might notice here some of these verbs look a little bit different and we're gonna
have to take a deeper dive into the grammar. Let's start with regular verbs. The most common way we
create the past simple is by adding E D to the end. I worked there last year, I stayed home.
I visited my family last weekend. However, this will change slightly depending on the verb.
There are other verbs which have an E at the end in this case case, you only need to add a D
to the end. Looking at these two examples, I hoped you would call and I decided to quit.
Some verbs you'll see change the spelling slightly, and they will need a second
consonant. For the verb to plan, it changes to have two ends, I planned to call you and
regret with one T becomes I regretted leaving with two T's. And finally, some verbs, which in
their basic form, have a Y will change to have an I. For example, I cried at the end of the movie,
Y becomes I, and we add E D, or I studied all night, Y becomes I, and we add, E D.
Now, while you were watching that, you probably noticed
some of the words sounded a little bit different. Let's take a closer look at that. Pronunciation.
The first pronunciation form is just the D sound, as in, I moved to Australia 10 years ago,
you'll hear this in examples like tried, lived, used, and failed. The second form is a T sound,
practice out loud with me. I watched a movie last night. In this case, the E D
simply becomes a T sound, watched. Other examples include stopped, laughed, worked
past. And finally, good. If you look at the third example, I started working here last month,
started. So anytime there's an ending with a D, or a T, you get this td or dd sound, as in
ended, decided or regretted. And remember, we've got all this information and more in
the downloadable, so be sure to click that link. Now let's take a closer look at irregular verbs.
These verbs follow a less predictable structure. So you'll see that each verb has a slightly
different way of being written or spoken. The best way to learn these is to just practice.
You'll see here, I woke up early, she fell asleep at 10pm. He went home early, she was very
upset. There are quite a few of these different verbs, so be sure to read a lot, practice them
and make sure it's a habit. It can take time. But once you've got it in here, it's never coming out.
Let's very quickly look at the negative form. In this case, let's take a look at a simple word
go. The past negative form simply adds the words did not. Or we sometimes shorten it
to didn't or didn't. Let's take a look at some examples. I didn't do my homework. She didn't
call me. We didn't have enough time. And they didn't finish their work.
And this comes to the main point, how do I improve? How do I get better at this?
How do I make this a habit? How do I make it automatic so I cannot make a mistake.
Now pro tip. A lot of students I will see reading lists of verbs and trying to memorise them.
And yes, we're providing you with a downloadable that has some of these verbs.
But what I would also love to see all of you doing is writing down sentences using these past forms.
But what sentences you might ask sentences that tell me about you. There are three ways
we can write about our life to improve the use of the past simple. The first one is a journal.
For example, yesterday, I woke up at 6am, ate breakfast, and left home to go to work.
After I arrived at work, I had a meeting at 9:30am. Then I made a few phone calls,
and answered some emails. I was really surprised by how quickly the day passed.
I didn't even eat lunch until 2:30pm. So when writing a journal,
don't just tell me what you did. Tell me what you did. And tell me how you felt about it.
That is the perfect way to write your journal. The second technique is to tell me about your life.
I was born and raised in Canada, I lived there most of my life. And I always loved
going into the nearby mountains and forests to explore. In school, I really loved studying
history. But I really didn't like math. And finally, important stories from your life.
In these examples, you might start with a simple introduction like 10 years ago, or five years ago,
or last year, or six months ago. All of these phrases will introduce the past.
Here's an example. 10 years ago, I decided to move to Australia.
In the beginning, I just wanted to go to university in Melbourne. But after I graduated,
I was offered a job. And I met the woman who became my wife. A few years ago, we got married.
I was surprised by how much I liked it here. I really thought I would only stay for one year.
Now, some of you might notice there's some more complex grammar that has appeared in
that example. And as I said, if you can control your past simple,
you'll be able to control the more complex grammatical structures. Thanks everyone. That was
the past simple. Don't forget to click the link in below and get the downloadable or better still,
why don't you tell us in the comments below one of your stories. Tell us about your life. What
did you do? How do you feel about it? We'd love to see it in the comments below. Have a good day.