General English Level 1 V 3

UNIT 05 Keeping well TOPIC 01 Talking about how you feel

	LANGUAGE FOCUS 15 The past simple tense

Carmen and Amy say
Amy:	... How was the lecture?
Carmen:	It was okay. I took a lot of notes. ... How are you feeling?
Amy:	Oh, better. I went to see the doctor.

Carmen:	Can I cook you something?
Amy:	Oh, no thanks. I cooked some chicken soup before and ate a little.

Carmen and Amy talk about the day. It is 9 o'clock at night. The day is finished. They use past simple verbs ( was , took , went , cooked , ate )

When we talk about finished time (yesterday, before, last night, two weeks ago etc) we use the past tense. Was , took , went , cooked , ate are examples of the past simple tense .

I
You
He
She
It
We
They

was
cooked
ate
went
took

Past simple verbs usually end in - ed . These are regular verbs, for example, cook ed , watch ed , liv ed .

Some past simple verbs are irregular, for example, went , saw , ate .

Regular verbs - examples

1	Read the examples.
2	Click on each example to listen.
3	Practise saying each example.

Irregular verbs - examples

1	Read the examples.
2	Click on each example to listen.
3	Practise saying each example.

Spelling

Verbs ending in y ied

Example

I study English. I studied French last year.

Verbs with short vowels double the last consonant.

Example

The bus usually stops at the park. The bus stopped at the shops yesterday.

Look at a list of irregular verbs.

Now go to 16 PRACTICE The past simple tense.