SUMMARY
IN
Past simple and past continuous
GRAMMAR
HOW TO tell a story in the past
1 Past simple
N
She was running in the forest when suddenly the sound of an owl startled her.
FORM
Positive (+)*
Negative (-)
Questions (?)
1st p. sing. 2nd p. sing. 3rd p. sing. 1st p. plur. 2nd p. plur. 3rd p. plur.
I laughed. You laughed. He/She laughed. We laughed. You laughed. They laughed.
I didn’t laugh. You didn’t laugh. He/She didn’t laugh. We didn’t laugh. You didn’t laugh. They didn’t laugh.
Did I laugh? Did you laugh? Did he/she laugh? Did we laugh? Did you laugh? Did they laugh?
Rule:
Subject + base form of the verb + (e)d
Subject + didn’t / did not + base form of the verb
Did + subject + base form of the verb
VA
Subject
*Irregular verbs: Mind the irregular verbs in the positive form. You have to learn them by heart (see Unit 1, p. 36-38).
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Keep in mind: Mind the spelling of regular verbs like ’try’ (tried), ’stop’ (stopped), ’arrive’ (arrived), ’travel’ – (travelled) in the positive form. In the negative, the auxiliary can have a long or short form: – e.g. I didn’t send a reply back. = I did not send a reply back. – ’To be’ is a special verb: there is no ’did (not)’ for negative sentences and questions. e.g. My friend wasn’t downstairs. e.g. Was my friend downstairs?
UNIT 2
SPOOKTACULAR
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