Deportistas famosos: Pasado simple

1- Famous sportswomen

Charlotte "Chattie" Reinagle Cooper, was the first female Olympic champion in history. She was British and played tennis professionally. Also, she won five female championships. She was born in September 1870, and died in 1966.

Gabrielle Douglas was 17 years old when she competed in the London Olympics in 2012. She got the gold medal in individual and team competitions. She became the first African descent in Olympic history who won the individual artistic gymnastics competition.  

Gertrude Ederle was born in 1905. She was an Olympic swimming champion. She became the first woman who crossed the English Channel swimming in 1926. She swam for 14 hours and 34 minutes to cross to the other side of the channel.  

2- Talking about the past:

We use the past simple to talk about events that start and finish in the past. There are some rules that you need to study but the most important is to check some examples to review the structure and use of this tense. 

2.1- Regular verbs:

To form the past tense, add -ED at the end of the verb, but keep in mind the following rules:

If the verb has one syllable, a single vowel and ends in a consonant: double the consonant and add ed

She changed her number $\to$ Change

If the verb ends in e:  only add d

I tried again $\to$ Try

If the verb ends in a consonant + y:  change the y into i and add ed

I stayed in her house $\to$ Stay

If the verb ends in a vowel+ y: only add ed

 

 

2.2- Irregular verbs

Besides the regular verbs, there are irregular verbs that don’t end in ED. The best way to learn them is to practice, study and remember the examples. Also, you can group them according similarities. Check the following list with the most common verbs.

 

Verb form	Past Simple
Become	Became
Begin	Began
Break	Broke
Buy	Bought
Come	Came
Do	Did
Drink	Drank
Drive	Drove
Fall	Fell
Find	Found
Forget	Forgot
Swim	Swam
Think	Thought
Wear	Wore

 

Verb form	Past Simple
Get	Got
Give	Gave
Go	Went
Have	Had
Know	Knew
Leave	Left
Lose	Lost
Make	Made
Meet	Met
Pay	Paid
Put	Put
Take	Took
Understand	Understood
Win	Won

 

Verb form	Past simple
Run	Run
Say	Said
See	Saw
Sell	Sold
Send	Sent
Shoot	Shot
Sing	Sang
Sit	Sat
Sleep	Slept
Speak	Spoke
Spend	Spent
Tell	Told
Wake	Woke
Write	Wrote

 

2.3- Verb to be:

The verb to be is an irregular verb.  The form in the past is the following:

I, he, she, it $\to$ was /wasn’t

She was 14 years old in 2015 – He wasn’t there when I arrived – Was it on the car?

You, we, they $\to$ were/ weren’t

We were happy together last year – You weren’t at home last night – Were they with you last summer? 

*In question and negative forms don’t use DID. 

 

2.4- Did: the past auxiliary

We use did to make negative and interrogative past simple sentences. When we use the auxiliary, the verb DOESN’T CHANGE, it keeps its base form. Look at the following structures

 

NEGATIVE: SUBJECT+ DID NOT (didn’t) + BASE FORM Examples:  – You didn’t go to tennis classes yesterday. – I didn´t buy a new ball.

QUESTIONS: DID+ SUBJECT + BASE FORM + ?  Examples: -Did you study for the test? Yes, I did/No, I didn’t -Did you buy the tickets? Yes, I did/No, I didn’t *The questions tags go first (what, when, who, where, how)

 

2.5- Time markers

There are some words that indicate when in the past occurred an event.  

 

 

2.6- Some important things to remember

 

Some rules	Regular verbs: Add -ed -> walk – walked Ending in -y : Add -ied ->  try – tried Most ending vowel + consonant: double consonant -> stop – stopped
Negative	Subject + DIDN'T + verb base form I didn't go to the stadium yesterday.
Questions	DID + SUBJECT +  VERB base form ? When did you watch the football game?
When to use it	To talk about actions or situations finished in the past.