2. What is Simple Past Tense?
• The simple past tense is used to talk about a
completed action in a time before now.
• The simple past is the basic form of past tense
in English.
• The time of the action can be in the recent
past or the distant past and action duration is
not important.
3. Example
• John Cabot sailed to America in 1498.
• My father died last year.
• He lived in Fiji in 1976.
• We crossed the Channel yesterday.
4. English and Indonesian
• Be Careful: The simple past in English may
look like a tense in your own language, but the
meaning may be different.
English Indonesian
Present Past Sekarang Kemarin
I study everyday I studied last night Saya belajar setiap hati Saya belajar kemarin
malam
5. Forming the Simple Past Tense
Affirmative
Subject + verb + d/ed/i+ed + complement
I watched television
Negative
Subject + did not + infinitive without to
They didn't watch tv.
Interrogative
Did + subject + infinitive without to
Did she watch tv?
Interrogative negative
Did not + subject + infinitive without to
Didn't you watch tv?
6. To walk
Affirmative Negative Interrogative
I walked I didn't walk Did I walk?
You walked You didn't walk Did you walk?
He walked He didn't walk Did he walk?
We walked We didn't walk Did we walk?
They walked They didn't walk Did they walk?
7. Time expressions in Simple Past Tense
Simple Past Tense
Time Expressions Example
frequency:
often,
sometimes,
Always
I sometimes walked home at lunchtime.
I often brought my lunch to school.
a definite point in time:
last ... (week),
when ... (I was a child),
yesterday,
(six weeks) ... ago
We saw a good film last week.
Yesterday, I arrived in Geneva.
She finished her work atseven o'clock
I went to the theatre last night
an indefinite point in time:
the other day,
ages ago,
a long time ago
People lived in caves a long time ago.
8. Exercise
• I ____________________ (wash) the clothes yesterday.
• The plane _________________ (land) ten minutes ago.
• My cousin _________________ (visit) us last summer.
• We _________________ (walk) to school yesterday.
• She ______________ (laugh) when I told her the joke.
• I __________(carry) my mom’s shopping bag yesterday.
• Yesterday we __________ (hurry) to the station to catch
the train.
• My brother ____________(cry) when he fell off his bike
two days ago.
• She _____________(smile) when she saw me last week.
• He ______________ (live) in France when he was a baby.