Past Simple

El pasado simple

Hay muchas maneras de hablar del pasado en inglés, pero el pasado

simple es la forma más común. El pasado simple en inglés es equivalente
al pretérito imperfecto y pretérito indefinido del español. Usamos el
pasado simple para acciones completas en el pasado. El período de
tiempo de estas acciones no es importante como en el español. En el
pasado simple hay verbos regulares y verbos irregulares.

Grammatical Rules (Reglas gramaticales)

Form (Forma)
Para formar el pasado simple con verbos regulares, usamos el infinitivo y
añadimos la terminación “-ed”. La forma es la misma para todas las
personas (I, you, he, she, it, we, they).

Ejemplos:
want → wanted
learn → learned
stay → stayed
walk → walked
show → showed
Excepciones:

1. Para verbos que terminan en una “e”, sólo añadimos “-d”.

Ejemplos:

change → changed
believe → believed
2. Si el verbo termina en una vocal corta y una consonante (excepto “y”
o “w”), doblamos la consonante final.
Ejemplos:

stop → stopped
commit → committed
3. Con verbos que terminan en una consonante y una “y”, se cambia la
“y” por una “i”.

Ejemplos:

study → studied
try → tried
Nota: Hay muchos verbos irregulares en inglés. Desafortunadamente, no
hay una norma establecida para formarlos. Ver una lista de los verbos
irregulares aquí. A continuación tienes los tres verbos irregulares más
comunes y los que actúan como verbos auxiliares.
Verb Past simple
be was (I, he, she, it)
were (you, we, they)
do did
have had

Pronunciation (Pronunciación)
Pronunciamos la terminación “-ed” de forma diferente dependiendo de
la letra que va al final del infinitivo. En general la “e” es muda.

1. Con los infinitivos que terminan en “p”, “f”, “k” o “s” (consonantes
sordas, excepto “t”) pronunciamos la terminación “-ed” como una “t”.

Ejemplos:

looked[lukt]
kissed[kisst]
2. Con los infinitivos que terminan en “b”, “g”, “l”, “m”, “n”, “v”, “z”
(consonantes sonoras, excepto “d”) o una vocal, pronunciamos sólo la
“d”.

Ejemplos:

yelled[jeld]
cleaned[klind]
3. Con los infinitivos que terminan en “d” o “t”, pronunciamos la “e” como
una “i”.

Ejemplos:

ended[endid]
waited[weitid]

Structure (Estructura)
1. Affirmative Sentences (Frases afirmativas)

Sujeto + verbo principal…

Ejemplos:

She was a doctor.(Era doctora.)

The keys were in the drawer.(Las llaves estaban en el cajón.)
I wanted to dance.(Quería bailar.)
They learned English.(Aprendieron inglés.)
We believed him.(Le creímos.)
I bought a blue car.(Compré un coche azul.)
2. Negative Sentences (Frases negativas)

To be:
Sujeto + “to be” + “not”…
Ejemplos:

She wasn’t a doctor.(Ella no era doctora.)

The keys weren’t in the drawer.(Las llaves no estaban en el cajón.)
Nota: El verbo “to have got”, que en el presente simple sigue las mismas
reglas que el verbo “to be”, no puede ser utilizado en el pasado. Para
indicar la posesión en el pasado, usamos el verbo “to have”.

Todos los verbos demás:

Sujeto + verbo auxiliar (to do) + “not” + verbo principal (en infinitivo)…
Ejemplos:

I didn’t want to dance.(No quería bailar.)

They didn’t learn English.(No aprendieron inglés)
We didn’t believe him.(No le creímos.)
I didn’t buy a blue car.(No compré un coche azul.)
Nota: En frases negativas, el verbo auxiliar va en pasado (“did”) y el verbo
principal se queda en el infinitivo.

3. Interrogative Sentences (Frases interrogativas)

To be:

“To be” + sujeto…?

Ejemplos:

Was she a doctor?(¿Era doctora?)

Were the keys in the drawer?(¿Estaban las llaves en el cajón?)
Todos los demás verbos:

Verbo auxiliar (to do) + sujeto + verbo principal (en infinitivo)…?

Ejemplos

Did you want to dance?(¿Querías bailar?)

Did they learn English?(¿Aprendieron inglés?)
Did you believe him?(¿Le creíste?)
Did you buy a blue car?(¿Compraste un coche azul?)
Nota: Al igual que en las frases negativas, el verbo auxiliar va en pasado
(“did”) y el verbo principal se queda en el infinitivo.

Uses (Usos)
1. El pasado simple se utiliza para hablar de una acción concreta que
comenzó y acabó en el pasado. En este caso equivale al pretérito
indefinido español. Generalmente, lo usamos con adverbios de tiempo
como “last year”, “yesterday”, “last night”…

Ejemplos:

Tom stayed at home last night.(Tom se quedó en casa anoche.)

Kate worked last Saturday.(Kate trabajó el sábado pasado.)
I didn’t go to the party yesterday.(No fui a la fiesta ayer.)
Did they walk to school this morning?(¿Han andado a la escuela
esta mañana?)
2. Se usa el pasado simple para un serie de acciones en el pasado.

Ejemplos:

I received the good news and immediately called my

husband.(Recibí la buena noticia y llamé de inmediato a mi marido.)
 He studied for an hour in the morning, worked all afternoon and
didn’t return home until 10 at night.(Estudió durante una hora por la
mañana, trabajó toda la tarde y no regresó a casa hasta las 10 de la
noche.)
3. También lo usamos para acciones repetidas o habituales en el pasado,
como se usa el pretérito imperfecto español.

Ejemplos:

We always traveled to Cancun for vacation when we were

young.(Siempre viajábamos a Cancun durante las vacaciones cuando
éramos jóvenes.)
He walked 5 kilometers every day to work.(Caminaba 5 kilómetros
hasta el trabajo cada día.)
4. Lo usamos para narraciones o acciones de períodos de largo tiempo
en el pasado, como el pretérito imperfecto español.

Ejemplos:

I worked for many years in a museum.(Trabajaba en un museo

durante muchos años.)
She didn’t eat meat for years.(No comía carne durante años.)
5. Se utiliza para hablar de generalidades o hechos del pasado.

Ejemplos:

The Aztec lived in Mexico.(Los aztecas vivían en México)

I played the guitar when I was a child.(Tocaba la guitarra cuando
era niño.)
 Regular and irregular verbs
In the context of verbs, we use the term inflection to talk about the
process of changing a verb form to show tense, mood, number (i.e.
singular or plural), and person (i.e. first person, second person, or third
person). This section deals with inflecting verbs to show tenses and
participles, and is divided into two main sections:
Regular verbs
Irregular verbs

Regular verbs
Many English verbs are regular, which means that they form their
different tenses according to an established pattern. Such verbs work like
this:
3rd person 3rd person
past present
Verb singular singular
participle participle
present tense past tense
he/she he/she
laugh laughed laughing
laughs laughed
love he/she loves he/she loved loved loving
he/she
boo he/she boos booed booing
booed

Present tense formation

In the present simple tense, the basic form of a regular verb only
changes in the 3rd person singular, as follows:
Most verbs just add -s to the basic form (e.g. take/takes, seem/seems,
look/looks).

Verbs that end with a vowel other than e add -es (e.g. go/goes,
veto/vetoes, do/does).

Verbs that end with -s, -z, -ch, -sh, and -x add -es
(e.g. kiss/kisses, fizz/fizzes, punch/punches, wash/washes, mix/mixes).
If the verb ends in a consonant plus -y, change the y to an i before
adding -es (e.g. hurry/hurries, clarify/clarifies). But if the verb ends in a
vowel plus -y, just add -s (e.g. play/plays, enjoy/enjoys).

Past tense formation

Forming the past simple tense of regular verbs is mostly straightforward,
and you use the same form for the first, second, and third persons,
singular and plural:
If the basic form of the verb ends in a consonant or a vowel other than e,
add the letters -ed to the end
(e.g. seem/seemed, laugh/laughed, look/looked).

For verbs that end in -e, add -

d (e.g. love/loved, recede/receded, hope/hoped).

If the verb ends in a consonant plus -y, change the y to an i before

adding -ed (e.g. hurry/hurried, clarify/clarified). But if the verb ends in a
vowel plus -y, just add -ed (e.g. play/played, enjoy/enjoyed).

For more detail, see Verb tenses: adding-ed-and-ing.

Forming participles

To form the past participle of regular verbs, follow the same rules as for
the past simple tense above.

To make the present participle of regular verbs:

If the basic form of the verb ends in a consonant or a vowel other than e,
add the ending -ing (e.g. laugh/laughing, boo/booing).
If the verb ends in e, drop the e before adding -ing (e.g. love/loving,
hope/hoping).

If the basic form ends in y just add -ing (e.g. hurry/hurrying,

clarify/clarifying).

Irregular verbs
There are many irregular verbs that don’t follow the normal rules. Here
are the forms of some of the most common irregular verbs:
3rd person
3rd person
singular past present
Verb singular
present participle participle
past tense
tense
be is was been being
begin begins began begun beginning
bite bites bit bitten biting
break breaks broke broken breaking
buy buys bought bought buying
choose chooses chose chosen choosing
come comes came come coming
dig digs dug dug digging
do does did done doing
drink drinks drank drunk drinking
eat eats ate eaten eating
fall falls fell fallen falling
feel feels felt felt feeling
find finds found found finding
get gets got got getting
go goes went gone going
grow grows grew grown growing
have has had had having
hide hides hid hidden hiding
keep keeps kept kept keeping
know knows knew known knowing
lay lays laid laid laying
lead leads led led leading
leave leaves left left leaving
lie lies lay lain lying
lose loses lost lost losing
make makes made made making
meet meets met met meeting
put puts put put putting
read
reads read /red/ read /red/ reading
/ri:d/
ride rides rode ridden riding
ring rings rang rung ringing
rise rises rose risen rising
run runs ran run running
say says said said saying
see sees saw seen seeing
sell sells sold sold selling
set sets set set setting
sing sings sang sung singing
sit sits sat sat sitting
stand stands stood stood standing
stick sticks stuck stuck sticking
take takes took taken taking
teach teaches taught taught teaching
think thinks thought thought thinking
wake wakes woke woken waking
 My vacations

The holidays began when one more cycle ends in the

university. I was
worried about a course, first came the Christmas and
New Year holidays,
I spent it as a family.
In January I was at my house helping with cleaning
sometimes went
shopping.
In February, I started to work and study. The carnivals
of my group were
great. End of March I plan to travel.

Model conversation

A: My dad went to Washington, D.C.

B: Why did he do that?
A: He was invited, along with about 90 other veterans.
B: Who invited them?
A: Some private organization.
B: Why did they invite him?
A: To thank him and all the other soldiers who served in
World War II.
B: That's very nice.
A: My dad got to see the beautiful new World War II
Monument.
B: That trip must have cost a lot of money.
A: He said all the money came from private donations.

Travel Problems vocabulary

los lugares
the places

acredite
confirm

enterados
well-informed, knowledgeable

los percances
the mishaps

colocar
to place, make

la denuncia
the report
el vuelo
the flight

perder
to lose

el consulado
the consulate

los trámites
the procedures

solicitar
to apply

indispensable
essential

ambos
both

el espacio
the space
proponer
suggest, propose

bañarse
to take a bath

cambiar
to exchange, change

llenar
to fill, to fill-in

facturar
to check

el nivel
the level

Animals Vocabulary List

Farm Animals (Animales de granja):

English / Inglés Spanish / Español "Spanunciation"

Bull Toro búol
Cow Vaca káu
Chicken Pollo chéken
Chick Pollito chek
Donkey Burro dánki
 Goat Cabra góut
Horse Caballo jors
Pig Cerdo peg
Rabbit Conejo rébet
Sheep Oveja ship
Turkey Pavo térki

Wild Animals of the World

Spanish English
elefante elephant
jirafa giraffe
cebra zebra
león lion
tigre tiger
jaguar jaguar
leopardo leopard
puma puma
rinoceronte rhinoceros
hipopótamo hippopotamus
mono, mico, macaco, maza, monkey
coto
chimpancé chimpanzee
galbana, perezoso sloth
iguana iguana
armadillo armadillo
avestruz ostrich
canguro kangaroo
oso bear
hiena hyena
foca seal
morsa walrus
ballena whale
orco killer whale
tiburón shark
antílope antelope
gacela gazelle
Búfalo de agua water buffalo
ñú wildebeest
pitón python
boa boa constrictor
tortuga turtle
mongosta mongoose
cobra cobra
delfín dolphin
cerdo salvaje wild hog