Past Simple

IL PAST SIMPLE SI USA:

Per parlare di azioni svolte nel passato che sono concluse. La durata dell’azione è irrilevante. L’azione può essersi svolta in un passato prossimo o remoto.
Per indicare in che momento si è verificato un avvenimento; pertanto, questo tempo è sempre associato a un determinato tipo di espressioni temporali: – frequenza: often, sometimes, always. I sometimes walked home at lunchtime.
I often brought my lunch to school. –un momento preciso: last week, when I was a child, yesterday, six weeks ago. e saw a good film last week.
Yesterday, I arrived in Geneva.
She finished her work atseven o’clock
I went to the theatre last night

un momento non preciso: the other day, ages ago, a long time ago People lived in caves a long time ago.
She played the piano when she was a child.

Attenzione: Il simple past in inglese può sembrare simile al passato remoto in italiano, ma non sempre il significato è lo stesso.

CONIUGAZIONE VERBI REGOLARI

“SIMPLE PAST” CON I VERBI REGOLARI

Affermativa
Soggetto	+ verbo + ed
I	skipped.
Negativa
Soggetto	+ did not	+ infinito senza to
They	didn’t	go.
Interrogativa
Did	+ soggetto	+ infinito senza to
Did	she	arrive?
Interrogativa negativa
Did not	+ soggetto	+ infinito senza to
Didn’t	you	play?

TO WORK

Affermativa	Negativa	Interrogativa
I worked	I didn’t work	Did I work?
You worked	You didn’t work	Did you work?
He worked	He didn’t work	Did he work?
We worked	We didn’t work	Did we work?
They worked	They didn’t work	Did they work?

“SIMPLE PAST” DI TO BE, TO HAVE, TO DO

Soggetto	Verbo
	Be	Have	Do
I	was	had	did
You	were	had	did
He/She/It	was	had	did
We	were	had	did
You	were	had	did
They	were	had	did

NOTE SULLE FORME AFFERMATIVA, NEGATIVA E INTERROGATIVA

AFFERMATIVA

La forma affermativa del simple past è semplice.

I was in Japan last year
She had a headache yesterday.
We did our homework last night.

NEGATIVA E INTERROGATIVA

Le forme negativa e interrogativa al simple past di to do, in quanto verbo semplice, si formano usando l’ausiliare to do, ad esempio: We didn’t do our homework last night.
La forma negativa di have al simple past si forma solitamente con l’ausiliare do, ma talvolta si aggiunge semplicemente not o la contrazione n’t.

La forma interrogativa di have al simple past si forma solitamente con l’ausiliare do.

ESEMPI

They weren’t in Rio last summer.
We didn’t have any money.
We didn’t have time to visit the Eiffel Tower.
We didn’t do our exercises this morning.
Were they in Iceland last January?
Did you have a bicycle when you were young?
Did you do much climbing in Switzerland?

Nota: Le forme negativa e interrogativa di tutti i verbi al simple past si formano sempre con l’ausiliare did.

PAST SIMPLE E I VERBI IRREGOLARI

Alcuni vebri sono irregolari al simple past. Ecco un elenco dei più comuni.

TO GO

He went to a club last night.
Did he go to the cinema last night?
He didn’t go to bed early last night.

TO GIVE

We gave her a doll for her birthday.
They didn’t give John their new address.
Did Barry give you my passport?

TO COME

My parents came to visit me last July.
We didn’t come because it was raining.
Did he come to your party last week?