Grammar ~21 min of the core left

Tell a story in the past

After this lesson you can

I can talk about the past in full: ask a question, say "no" and give the third form of a verb.

Start the lesson Core 19–21 min · steps: 6 · optional: +2

Declared core time. Two of the core blocks carry no figure at all, so the real lesson is longer than this sum.

Grammar

5 min

At A1 the past tense came only in statements. Now it comes in full.

Questions and negatives are made with the helping verb did, and the main verb goes back to its BASIC form.

statement I worked at home. / I went to Italy.
question Did you work at home? / Did you go to Italy? / What did you do?
negative I didn't work. / I didn't go.
short answer Yes, I did. / No, I didn't.

It is the same system as in the present (lessons A1 #8–#9): the ending moves to the helping verb, and the main verb stays clean. Did is the same for all persons — no -s, no exceptions.

The third form of the verb. An English verb has three forms, and you will need the third one (also called the past participle) from the next lessons on:

basic form past third form
work worked worked
go went gone
see saw seen
do did done
have had had
take took taken
give gave given
write wrote written
speak spoke spoken
eat ate eaten
drink drank drunk
be was/were been

With regular verbs the second and third forms are the same: worked — worked. With irregular verbs you have to learn the third form separately — it is the one used in the perfect (lesson 3) and in the passive (lesson 19).

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Common learner errors

written for your language
1

A double past

✗ Did you worked?

✗ I didn't went

✓ Did you work?

I didn't go. In many languages the verb itself shows the past in a question and a negative too, so learners mark it twice. In English the past is already shown by did; you cannot show it a second time. It is the same double ending as Does he works? in A1 #9, and the most common error of the level.

2

A question or a negative without did

✗ You went to Italy?

✗ Went you to Italy?

✗ I not went

✓ Did you go to Italy?

I didn't go. Portuguese, Spanish, Italian and Arabic can ask with the voice alone; German, Dutch and Swedish put the verb first (Gingst du nach Italien?); and the word for "not" simply goes before or after the verb. With a main verb in the past, English needs did for all of these, as with do in A1 #8.

3

The perfect for yesterday

✗ What have you done yesterday?

✓ What did you do yesterday?

In German (Was hast du gestern gemacht?), French (Qu'est-ce que tu as fait hier ?) and Italian (Cosa hai fatto ieri?) the normal spoken past is made with "have" + the third form. English has this form too (lesson 3), but never with yesterday, last week or ago: there it is did.

Pronunciation

3 min

In fast speech didn't loses its t: /ˈdɪdnt/ → /ˈdɪdn/. Before a consonant the t almost always disappears: I didn't know sounds like /aɪ ˈdɪdn nəʊ/.

In a question did is unstressed — /dɪd/ or even just /d/: Did you go? → roughly /dju ˈɡəʊ/. The stress falls on the main verb.

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Text

3 min

Did you have a good weekend?

Yes, I did. I went to my sister's house on Saturday.

Did you drive there?

No, I didn't. I took the train. I don't drive.

What did you do in the evening?

We cooked dinner and watched an old film. I didn't work at all.

Reading aloud

Exercises

8–10 min

1. Transformation.

  1. You went to Italy.
  2. She worked at home.
  3. They saw the film.
Show the answers
Did you go to Italy? / You didn't go to Italy. Did she work at home? / She didn't work at home. Did they see the film? / They didn't see the film.

2. Error correction.

  1. Did you worked yesterday?
  2. I didn't went to work.
  3. You went there?
Show the answers
Did you work yesterday? / I didn't go to work. / Did you go there?

3. Three forms. Write the second and the third form:

  1. go → —
  2. see → —
  3. take → —
  4. write → —
  5. eat → —
Show the answers
went — gone, saw — seen, took — taken, wrote — written, ate — eaten.

4. Gap fill.

  1. you see the film? — Yes, I
  2. I work on Sunday
  3. What you do yesterday?
Show the answers
Did / did, didn't, did.
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Summary

Covered

  • did and didn't
  • the short answer
  • a question word with did
  • the third form of twelve verbs

Next — lesson 2: what was happening at a given moment.

End of the core

The lesson counts as done once the exercises are done. Everything after this is optional.

Lesson 38

optional

Vocabulary for your deck

12 words
  • gone /ɡɒn/ third form of go (has gone home)
  • seen /siːn/ third form of see
  • done /dʌn/ third form of do
  • taken /ˈteɪkən/ third form of take
  • written /ˈrɪtn/ third form of write
  • eaten /ˈiːtn/ third form of eat
  • been /biːn/ third form of be
  • at all /ət ˈɔːl/ in any way (with a negative: not even a little)
  • weekend /ˌwiːkˈend/ Saturday and Sunday
  • nothing /ˈnʌθɪŋ/ not anything
  • everything /ˈevriθɪŋ/ all things
  • somebody /ˈsʌmbədi/ a person (you do not say who)

Writing

Five sentences about last weekend, with at least one negative and one question to the person you are talking to.

Example

Last weekend I went to my sister's house. I took the train because I don't drive. We cooked dinner and watched a film. I didn't work at all. Did you have a good weekend?

Checklist

The draft is saved on this device
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Practise this lesson in the other sections

Dictationbased on this lesson Write down what you hear. The check shows every word that differs, and how. Write the dictation Reading aloudbased on this lesson Read the lesson text aloud — speech recognition highlights the words it did not catch. Read the text aloud Reading and listeningA1–C1 Texts at every level with comprehension questions; the transcript opens after you answer. Try it

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