Past simple

Uses

1. Events in the past that are now finished

2. Situations in the past
3. A series of actions in the past

USE 1: Past actions that are now finished

The first use of the Past Simple to express actions that happened at a specific time in the past. The actions can be short [1] or long [2].

Examples:

• John cut his finger last week. [1]
• I went to college 3 years ago. [2]
• He ate the dinner 1 hour ago. [1]

• Garfield slept well last night. [2]

USE 2: Situation in the past

Another use of this tense is talking about situations in the past.

Examples:

• I lived in New York for 10 years (I don't live there anymore).

Before Now

USE 3: A series of actions in the past

The Past Simple can also be used with a few actions in the past happening one after another.

Example:

the grey monster was in love with the pink monster, he decided to give her some flowers but his friend hit him on his head considering him a betrayer.

Time Expressions

Common time expressions in the Past Simple are:

yesterday

the other day

last night/week/time/month/year

the day before yesterday

… ago

To be

Form regular verbs

irregular verbs

to be

	Positive sentences	Negative sentences
I	was	Was not (wasn't)
you	were	Were not (weren't)
He/she/it	was	Was not (wasn't)
we	were	Were not (weren't)
they	were	Were not (weren't)

Question form

Was I? Were you? Was he/she/it? Were we? Were they?

Regular verbs

Positive senteces

we add -ED to the base form of the verb

Ex: work → worked

look → looked

when the verbs end in y:

• if before the y there is a vowel we just add -ed. (play → played)

• if before the y there is a consonant we change y in i before adding -ed. (study → studied)

Irregular verbs

Positive sentences

we take the form from the second column of the paradigm.

Base form	Past simple	Past participle
bring	brought	brought
meet	met	met
sing	sang	sung
take	took	taken

Negative and question forms (both regular and irregular verbs)

negative form

subject + did not (didn't) + base form verb

Ex: I did not go out last night.

questions

did + subject + base form verb?

Ex: Did you work yesterday?

Present Perfect

Uses

1) Actions which happened at an indefinite (unknown) time before now
2) Actions in the past which have an effect on the present moment
3) Actions which began in the past and continue in the present

USE 1: Indefinite time before now

Use the Present Perfect to talk about actions that happened at some point in the past. It does not matter when they happened.

Examples:

• I have passed my exam.
• He has been to England.

USE 2: Effect on the present moment

We also use this tense when an activity has an effect on the present moment.

Examples:

• He has lost his keys.
  (so he can't open the door now)
• I haven't eaten dinner yet.
  (so I'm hungry)

• He has had a car accident.
  (that's why he is in the hospital)

USE 3: Continuation in the present

We often use the Present Perfect when we want to emphasize that an event continues in the present.

For this use in Italian we don't use “passato prossimo” but “presente” so pay attention when you translate from Italian into English!

Example:

• Mary has worked as a teacher for over 25 years.
  25 years ago now

(Mary lavora come insegnante da più di 25 anni)

teacher's note: Presen Perfect can be considered the tense that expresses experiences in your life (when you are alive) without an exact time reference.

Common time expressions in the Present Perfect are:

Since and For are very common time expressions used with the Present Perfect. We use For with a period of time, for example: I have lived here for 20 years. When talking about a starting point, we use Since, for example: I have lived here since 1960.

already

yet

just

never

ever

so far

Form

To form a sentence in the Present Perfect, you need:

present simple of TO HAVE + PAST PARTICIPLE

1. to Have

Person	Singular	Plural
First	I have	We have
Second	You have	You have
Third	He/she/it has	They have

2. The Past Participle

The past participle can be either regular or irregular.

• Regular verbs
  they are formed by adding -ed to the verb:

Verb	Past Participle
talk	talked
explain	explained

• Irregular verbs
  we take the form from the third column of the paradigm.

Base form	Past simple	Past participle
bring	brought	brought
meet	met	met
sing	sang	sung
take	took	taken

Positive form

Subject + have/has + past participle

Negative form

Subject + have not/ has not (haven't / hasn't) + past participle

Question form

have/has + subject + past participle ?