Gareth King - Colloquial English - A Complete English Language Course

Did you notice a difference between the PRESENT SIMPLE and the PAST

SIMPLE?

Present simple

Past simple

I buy

I bought

she buys

she bought

not ‘she boughts’

We don’t add -sfor he/ shein the past simple, only in the present simple!

Exercise 3

Complete these sentences by writing the verbs in the past simple –

the first one has been done for you.

1 Sandra brokeher leg last week.

(break)

2 James ______ off a ladder yesterday.

(fall)

3 That man _______ my wallet!

(steal)

4 I ________ yesterday but no one ______ .

(phone) (answer)

5 Suzie _______ last night.

(call)

6 I _______ my bag at the office.

(leave)

7 She ______ to me at the end of the meeting. (speak) 8 Who ______ that ball?

(throw)

9 We all ________ TV after dinner.

(watch)

10 My sister _______ to Italy last month.

(go)

Exercise 4

Change these past simple sentences into positive, question or negative as indicated. The first one has been done for you.

1

Candace travelled by bus.

[?]

Did Candace travel by bus?

2

Did they help him?

[–]

_______________________

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3

Did she open the window? [+]

_______________________

4

Terry didn’t wash the car.

[+]

_______________________

5

Henry walked to college

today.

[?]

_______________________

6

Suzie cleaned her teeth.

[–]

_______________________

7

The others arrived late.

[?]

_______________________

8

Sandra played the piano.

[?]

_______________________

Language point 55 – more about the

past simple

In Dialogue 3 both PAST SIMPLE and PRESENT PERFECT tenses are used

– it’s important in English to use them correctly and to understand the differences; they are both past tenses, but they are not inter-changeable!

The bank employee says:

One of our customers has just handed a passport inHe uses the PRESENT PERFECT because it happened a very short time ago – a few minutes, perhaps. But then he asks: When exactly did you lose your passport?

He uses the PAST SIMPLE here because he’s talking about an event that happened further back in the past – earlier that day.

Let’s look at these two sentences using go: a

Anne’s gone to the bank

(present perfect)

b

Anne went to the bank yesterday

(past simple)

Sentence (a) means that Anne was here a short while ago, but she isn’t here now. Sentence (b) simply states what happened yesterday.

Another way of looking at this difference is to imagine that we are in a room where Anne works. If someone comes in and asks for Anne, then we can only say (a) if Anne isn’t in the room (because she’s gone); but we could say (b) even if Anne is in the room with us , because the past simple describes a completed action in the past with no reference to the present.

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It is sometimes difficult for students of English to decide whether to use the present perfect or the past simple when talking about the past – but here are two helpful rules:

1

if something has happened a very short time ago: PRESENT

PERFECT

2

if there is a word that indicates when something happened: PAST

SIMPLE

So:

Is Kath here?

– She’s gone out to get a coffee – she’ll be back in a minute(1)

– She went out half an hour ago – I don’t know where she is(2) Back in Dialogue 2, Liz makes a statement and says: You did take all your stuff out of your bag

She could have said:

You took all your stuff out of your bag

This would be the normal past simple statement – but here she uses the auxiliary did(which we usually find only in past simple questions and negatives) to emphasise the action. And then Shamira uses didas a tag response:

Oh yes – so I did!

Then she does the same thing again. Liz says:

Maybe the passport fell out then?

and Shamira replies:

Maybe it did

We also use didto make QUESTION TAGS in the past simple: We went to Italy last year.

– Did you?

Stuart hurt his knee at football today.

– Oh dear, did he?

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Look at the difference between past simple and present perfect tags: Helen has gone.

– Has she?

Helen went yesterday.

– Did she?

You haven’t seen Brenda, have you?

– No, I haven’t.

You didn’t see Brenda yesterday, did you?

– No, I didn’t.

Candace hasn’t come back yet, has she?

– No, she hasn’t.

Candace didn’t come back yesterday,

did she?

– No, she didn’t.

Finally, notice another use of doas an AUXILIARY – the policeman in Dialogue 2 says:

Do feel free to use my phone

He puts Dobefore the COMMAND FORM (which is the same as the BASE-FORM – Language point 17) to change it from a command to a friendly invitation. Here are some more examples:

Do sit down!

Do have a cup of tea!

Do remember to write!

Exercise 5

Decide whether to use the past simple or present perfect from the brackets.

1 Come and look, everyone – Henry (fell/’s fallen) in the water!

2 The manager (went/’s gone) out an hour ago.

3 (Did you see/Have you seen) that new film yet?

4 It’s getting late – (did you finish/have you finished) your drink?

5 Dave (phoned/’s phoned) yesterday.

6 (Did you see/Have you seen) that French film on TV last week?

7 I (invited/’ve invited) Fiona round – she’ll be here in a few minutes.

8 Where (did my passport go/’s my passport gone)? It was here just now!

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9 It’s very quiet next door – (did they turn/have they turned) the TV off at last?

10 (Have you spoken/Did you speak) French on your holiday to France?

Language point 56 – past simple: ‘be’

and ‘have’

The verb haveis easy in the past simple: had/hd/; and questions and answers are done in the usual way:

+

I had an apple

?

Did I have an apple?

–

I didn’t have an apple

But beis unusual – first of all, it has two past simple forms: was

/wɔz/ and were/wr/:

I was

you were

he/she was

we were

they were

But it’s also unusual in how we form past simple questions and negatives: