Basic Conversations Past
Simple past
|
Subject |
Verb + d/ed/ied or irregular form (V2) |
|
|
I/He/She/It You/We/They |
Walked |
5 miles yesterday |
|
Slept |
last sunday |
Usage:
She walked 5 miles yesterday
Negative Sentence in Simple Past Tense
|
Subject |
didn’t + Verb in base form |
|
|
I/He/She/It/You/We/They |
didn’t walk didn’t sleep |
to the mall yesterday. late last Tuesday. |
Usage:
She didn’t sleep late last Tuesday.
Questions in Simple Past
|
Auxiliary Verb |
Subject |
Verb in base form |
|
|
Did |
I/You/We/They |
walk |
to the mall yesterday? |
|
he/she/it |
sleep |
late last Tuesday? |
Usage:
Did he sleep last tuesday?
Some useful phrases to be used in conversations
Phrases for talking about general experiences
(Generally/ In general/ On the whole), I have found that…
I (only) have (very) limited experience of this, but…/ I don’t have much experience of this (at all), but…
I …. a couple of times/ a few times/ quite a lot/ a lot/ all the time and…
I haven’t had any bad/ good experiences with this. On the contrary,…
In general/ Generally, I find/ I have found…
In my (limited/ very limited/ substantial/ personal) experience,…
Like/ Unlike most people, I have found that…
This has only happened to me twice/ a couple of times, but…
A memorable/ shocking/ typical/ bad/ terrible/ frightening/ sobering/ disappointing/ great/ life-changing/ good experience (that/ which) I had is…
An experience (I had) which I will always remember/ really influenced me/ is relevant to this (debate)/ is related to this (discussion)/ changed my life/ affected my attitudes/ this reminds me of/ comes to mind/ springs to mind/ I had related to this/ stands out is…
An experience which I wish I’d never had is…
An unforgettable/ amazing experience (that/ which) I had is…
I might have told you this story before, but…
I witnessed…
Phrases with time expressions etc
(I don’t remember this, but my parents told me that) when I was a baby/ toddler…
(I usually… but) one day…
(Just) a couple of days/ weeks/ months/ years ago…
(Just) the other day,…
I don’t remember exactly when, but…
I must have been about… years old when…
I once…
I will never forget the time when….
I’d just started…, when…
Something (similar) happened to me when…
When this happened to me…/ During one of the times this happened to me…
While I was…, (suddenly)…
Phrases to end talking about experiences
… (or) that’s my experience, anyway.
… though your/ other people’s experiences may be different.
I hope that I never experience that again/ you don’t have to go through the same thing/ the other guy was okay/ he has forgiven me/ I have learnt my lesson/ he gets what he deserves/ it will never happen again.
I still can’t believe it.
It was a once in a lifetime experience/ thing.
It’s difficult to believe it really happened.
Questions about experiences
Do you have experience of…?
Has… (ever) happened to you?
Have you ever…?
Have you experienced…?
I’m guessing you’ve (never)…
When you were…, did you…?
Phrases to talking about other people’s experiences
According to a friend of mine/ what someone told me/…
I heard that…
I know a good story about…
I wasn’t there at the time, but…
Someone told me that…
This didn’t actually happen to me, but…
This hasn’t happened to me personally, but apparently….
Activity: Memories
Some useful phrases to be used in conversations
How: choose one topic from the given list and write your memory on that topic, using the past tense of english language.
1. You have recently been to a vacation spot
2. You have recently watched an interesting movie
3. You met your old friend
4. Your first day in college
5. You got a hard scolding from your parents
6. A day when you/your parents felt proud of you
7. You did something good for someone
8. You were in guilt/most embarrassing moment
9. You did some social work
10. You were on cloud 9
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MCQ Exercise:
-
I ______ to the temple after school.
(went/gone/goed)
-
________ Pranay and Bhavya at last month’s meeting?
(was/are/were)
-
_________ you see Radha’s new dog yesterday?
(Do/Did/Are)
-
I _________ Science for two years.
(Study/ Studying/ Studied)
-
Sorry, I __________ hear you.
(wasn’t/ didn’t / am not)