Past Simple — My Journey Here
Past Simple — My Journey Here
People ask me: “How did you end up in La Réunion?” The answer is a past simple story: I left Sydney, I landed in Paris, I met someone, and everything changed. One tense carries the whole journey.
Past simple is the story tense — finished actions, fixed times. Regular verbs add -ed; the irregulars (go→went, leave→left) you simply memorise as the fifty most common.
🎯 Language Focus
| Type | Form | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Regular | verb + ed | work→worked, live→lived |
| Spelling -e | verb + d | live→lived, arrive→arrived |
| Consonant+y | y → ied | study→studied, carry→carried |
| Irregular core | go→went, have→had, leave→left | “I left Sydney in 2016.” |
| Negative | didn’t + base verb | “I didn’t know anyone.” |
| Question | Did you + base verb? | “Did you fly direct?” |
✏️ Quick Practice — Try It, Then Check
1. go / have / leave in past simple?
2. “I didn’t went.” — right or wrong?
3. study → past?
4. Ask: “You arrived on Monday.”
5. Which -ed gets an extra syllable: worked, lived, wanted?
6. Stop → past? (double the letter?)
7. Say: “She / not / come / yesterday.”
8. Tell me one thing you did yesterday.
🗣️ Your Turn (60 seconds)
Tell your own journey — any journey — in four past-simple sentences: where you were, what happened, what you didn’t expect, how it ended. Say it twice; second time, smoother.
💡 Your 5-Minute Takeaway
Past simple = finished time + one past marker. Regular -ed (three sounds!), irregular core fifty, and did/didn’t carrying the past in questions and negatives.
Independent educational resource. Not affiliated with, endorsed by, or accredited by Cambridge University Press & Assessment. Confers no qualification. Grammar reference: Swan, Practical English Usage. Frameworks: PPP, TBLT, ESA (standard ELT methodology).