Role models: listening and the past simple
Listen to the blog post below. Then learn the past simple. We use it for actions that started and finished in the past. Regular verbs add -ed: visit - visited, help - helped. Spelling: stop - stopped, study - studied, love - loved. Many common verbs are irregular: go - went, buy - bought, spend - spent, get - got, have - had, make - made, take - took, win - won, write - wrote. The verb be has two forms: I, he, she, it was; we, you, they were. For the negative we use didn’t with the short verb: She didn’t go. For questions we use did: Where did you go? Did you win? Past time words: yesterday, last week, two years ago, in 1990.
| Verb | Past | Verb | Past |
|---|---|---|---|
| go | went | win | won |
| buy | bought | write | wrote |
| have | had | take | took |
| make | made | spend | spent |
| get | got | be | was / were |
My grandmother is my role model. When she was young, she wanted to learn, but her family did not have much money. She went to school for four years, and then she worked in a shop. She studied at night. Later she wrote letters for neighbours who could not write. I respect her because she never gave up. She inspired me to keep trying, and she helps me with my homework.
| Statement | Negative | Question |
|---|---|---|
| She went to Alexandria. | She didn’t go to Cairo. | Where did she go? |
| They won the game. | They didn’t win the cup. | Did they win? |
What did you do last week, Ola?
I visited my aunt and we made a cake.
Did you buy the sugar?
No, I didn’t. My aunt bought it two days ago.
| Time phrase | Example |
|---|---|
| yesterday | I helped my dad yesterday. |
| last week | We went to Luxor last week. |
| two years ago | She started school two years ago. |
| in 2019 | He won a prize in 2019. |
Yesterday and last week. Each person writes five true sentences about yesterday or last week with past simple verbs from the table. Then a partner asks one question with Did … ? about each.
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