How is it formed?
Affirmative
I
He-She-Itworked yesterday
You-We-They

Negative
I
He-She-Itdidn't work yesterday
You-We-They

Interrogative
I
DidHe-She-Itwork last week?
You-We-They

Affirmative Short answers
I
YesHe-She-Itdid
You-We-They

Negative Short answers
I
NoHe-She-Itdidn't
You-We-They

To form the Past Simple we add ed to the base form of all regular verbs. For spelling and pronunciation see boxes below. For irregular verbs which have their own form of the Past Simple look at the table at the end of Unit…. pag... The interrogative and negative is formed with did/didn’t + base form for both regular and irregular verbs.

To form the affirmative of the Past Simple we add –ed to the base form of the regular verb. (for spelling and pronunciation rules see Boxes at the end of this Unit p….). Irregular verbs have a special form for the Past Simple. (See Table at the end of this Unit p. …). For the interrogative and the negative forms of both regular and irregular verbs use did and didn’t.
e.g.
For regular verbs (affirmative ): e.g. I watched TV yesterday. [Ho guardato la TV ieri.]
For irregular verbs (affirmative e.g. I saw a good film Saturday. [Ho visto un bel film sabato.]
For both regular and irregular verbs (negative and interrogative):
e.g.
I didn’t go shopping last week. [Non ho fatto acquisti la scorsa settimana.]
Did you study the literature lesson yesterday? [Hai studiato letteratura ieri?]

However the auxiliary verb to be has a specific Past Simple form.

The verb to be is the only irregular verb which has 2 forms in the Past Simple (was/were). The auxiliary to have can form its Past Simple in the same way as other verbs:

e.g.
Did you have a party yesterday? [Hai fatto festa ieri?]
I didn’t have a sandwich for lunch. [Non ho preso un sandwich per pranzo.]

However you can also form the Past Simple of to have by inverting subject and verb:


e.g. I hadn’t any money when I was young. [Non avevo soldi quando ero giovane.]
Had he an e-mail address when he worked at the Ministry? [Aveva un indirizzo e-mail quando lavorava al Ministero?]

This last form of to have is not very common today. Remember never to use got in the Past Tense with the verb to have:

e.g.
NOT: I had got a bike when I went to school.
But: I had a bike when I went to school. [Avevo una bicicletta quando andavo a scuola.]