PAST SIMPLE PAST CONTINUOUS S Montanari PAST SIMPLE

PAST SIMPLE PAST CONTINUOUS S. Montanari

PAST SIMPLE

Affirmative Form Subj. + Verb (regular or irregular) n e. g. I worked in a bank. They lived in Rome We left yesterday.

Question Form n Did + subj. +verb (infinitive) e. g. Where did you work? Did they understand? Did she study with you?

Negative Form Subj+ didn’t +verb (infinitive) n e. g. We didn’t live in France You didn’t understand He didn’t come by car

PRONUNCIATION n n Note the different pronunciation of the –ed suffix e. g. We lived in France [-d] He washed his car [-t] They separated in May [-éd]

IRREGULAR VERBS n e. g. come - came have get - had got Sofia came to work late yesterday I had an accident last night They got here at 10 p. m.

However in questions and negatives we use the aux. (did) + the infinitive n Did she come by car? n Where did they put the book? n Why did you buy the salt?

USE The Past Simple is used to: n - Express finished action in the past n n I got up at 7 a. m. this morning He met Julia when he was in Greece. Very often there is a time reference: yesterday, last week, two months ago etc. n

PAST CONTINUOUS

Affirmative Form Subj. + was/were+ verb –ing form n e. g. He was studying Russian They were watching TV I was staying in Rimini

Question Form Was/were+Subj. +verb –ing? n e. g. Were you listening? Where was she living in 2001? What were you talking about?

Negative Form Subj. +was/were not+ verb -ing n e. g. We were not travelling together You were not listening to me They were not living together

USE n n To describe an action that was in progress at a specific time in the past Mary was working at 10 yesterday To talk about an action that was in progress when a second action happened I was studying when the electricity went off To talk about two actions that were in progress at the same time in the past I was having a bath while my husband was cooking To give background information in a story It was getting dark, I was walking down the road when I saw a strange man …