Unit 6 | Tiếng Anh 6 (Friends Plus) | Language Focus Reference - Lớp 6 - Giáo Dục Việt Nam

Page 129

there was (n't), there were(n't)

There was and there were are the past simple forms of there is and there are. We use there was with singular forms and there were with plural forms. There wasn't and there weren't are the negative forms.

There was a big battle here 2,000 years ago.

There were different events in the Olympics.

There wasn't a cinema here before.

There weren't many cars thirty years ago.

was(n't), were(n't)

The past simple affirmative form of the verb be is was or were.

I was very quiet in class.

We were tired after the game of football.

The past simple negative form is was not or were not.  We usually use the contractions wasn't or weren't.

I wasn't very fit last year.

We weren't in the library yesterday morning.

Past simple: affirmative

We make the affirmative form of past simple regular verbs by adding -ed to the base form of the verb. Note that the past simple has only one form for all persons of the verb.

I played football. You played golf. She played tennis.

Irregular verbs each have their own past simple form.

come → came             do→ did             go → went

run → ran                   see → saw           swim → swam

win→ won

Usage

We use the past simple to talk about finished actions in the past and actions that happened at a specific time.

We watched that football match last week.

She won an Olympic medal in 2016.

Spelling Rules: past simple affirmative

With the majority of verbs, add -ed.

watch → watched                    check → checked

With verbs that end in -e, add -d.

like → liked                              live → lived

With verbs that end in a vowel + single consonant, double the consonant and add -ed.

stop → stopped                       travel → travelled

Past time expressions

We can use the past simple with a number of time expressions:

last week / month / year / weekend / Monday

in the

in 1995 / July 1825 yesterday

four days / three weeks / 200 years ago

The time expressions usually go at the end of a sentence or phrase, but they can also go at the beginning.

We visited London last year.

Last year, we visited London.