Simple Past TO BE

Eventos Pasados y Futuros…. En Lengua Extranjera.
Unit 1
Events in the Past
“Simple Past TO BE ”
Elaboración:
L.E.L.I. Karim Juárez Cortés
Unit 1
“Events in the Past”
USE
 It is used to talk about actions and facts in the past.
 Analyze the next questions and answers:
1)
2)
3)
4)
5)
What was your favorite cartoon?
When were you in the cinema?
Who were your classmates in the primary school?
When were you born?
Where was your mother yesterday at three o’clock?
My favorite cartoon was Looney Tones.
I was in the last Saturday.
Susana and Enrique were my classmates.
I was born in Veracruz Ver.
She was in my grandmother’s house.
FORM
 Simple past of verb “to be” is used to talk about actions in the past and we can use “Was or
Were” ( fui, estuve). And we use it with the next personal pronouns:
I + WAS
he
She
It
+ WAS
we
you
they
+ WERE
In the question 3 of the first part we use WERE because we refer to a lot of persons. ( En la
pregunta 3 de la primera parte utilizamos WERE porque nos referimos a muchas personas)
 In AFFIRMATIVE FORM we follow the next structure:
+ was /were + complement.
Examples:
1)
2)
3)
4)
5)
6)
7)
8)
9)
10)
I was in the school yesterday
You were my husband two years ago.
He was my favorite hero.
She was my English teacher.
It was a famous video game the last year.
We were in the party yesterday.
You were my boss
Susana and Enrique (they) were my colleagues in the hospital.
There were a lot of people at the party last night.
I was with George in the discotheque last night.
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ATTENTION...!
Nowadays = Hoy en día.
Exciting = emocionante
Cartoon = Caricatura
Boss = jefe
Colleagues: colegas
 We form the NEGATIVE by adding NOT after the verb, (Example: WAS NOT) the
contracted form N’T is joined to the verb (Example: WASN’T).
Example:
Personal pronoun + WAS/ WERE + not + complement.
FULL FORM
She
SHORT FORM She
was
wasn’t
not
American.
American
Examples:
1)
2)
3)
4)
5)
6)
7)
8)
9)
10)
I wasn’t from Argentina.
She wasn’t a good friend!
They weren’t my best friends from my childhood.
There wasn’t any restaurant in front of the school the last year.
Susana wasn’t so responsible in the secondary school.
You weren’t in the emergency area of the hospital yesterday.
Roberto and Richard weren’t my classmates in the university.
We weren’t in the hospital the last weekend, because we went to
Chiapas to a vaccine program.
She wasn’t my boss.
There weren’t any cars here.
PERSONAL
PRONOUN
I
You
He
She
It
We
You
they
NEGATIVE FORM
FULL FORM
Was not
were not
was not
was not
was not
were not
were not
were not
SHORT
FORM
Wasn’t
Weren’t
Wasn’t
Wasn’t
Wasn’t
Weren’t
Weren’t
Weren’t
ATTENTION...!
Childhood = Infancia
Selfish= egoísta
Lazy= flojo
Kind = amable
 We form the INTERROGATIVE of TO BE in simple past by inverting the subject and the
verb
(Example: YOU WERE = WERE YOU?)
Example:
1)
2)
3)
4)
WAS / WERE + Personal pronoun + complement?
Were
they
Chinese?
No, they weren’t / Yes, they were.
Were
you
at home yesterday at night?
Yes, I was / No, I wasn’t
Was
Susan
in your birthday party?
Yes, she was / No, she wasn’t
Was
Rodrigo with you yesterday?
Yes, he was / No, he wasn’t
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INTERROGATIVE FORM
Short Answers
Affirmative
Negative
was I ...?
Yes, I was
No, I wasn’t
were you...?
Yes, you were
No, you weren’t
was he....?
Yes, he was
No he wasn’t
was she...?
Yes, she was
No she wasn’t
was it ...?
Yes, it was
No, it wasn’t
were we ...?
Yes, we were
No, we weren’t
were you ...?
Yes, you were
No, you weren’t
were they ...?
Yes, they were
No, they weren’t
Interrogative




Was Roberto intelligent and loyal?
Were Susana and Catherine selfish?
Were we lazy in primary school?
Were my parents with you last night?
Examples:
 were you married two years ago ?
 was he from USA?
 was she Intelligent and kind ?
 Were they your brothers?
Examples:


Was he happy?
Was she in the supermarket
yesterday at midday?
Short answers
Yes, I was / No, I wasn’t
Yes, he was / No he wasn’t
Yes, she was/ No, she wasn’t
Yes, they were / No, they weren’t
NOTE: el verbo “tobe” que en pasado utilizamos “was/were” que significa (estaba o era) lo
utilizamos para hablar de acciones del pasado que ya no realizamos mas. Con los pronombre
personales I/ he/ she / it utilizamos WAS y con You/ We/ They utilizamos WERE. Tanto en
afirmativo, negativo e interrogativo.
 Read the next paragraph and pay attention in the words in blue and green.
The last year my family and I were to Acapulco beach, we didn’t have
enough money. So weren’t so happy with the hotel. Our room was
very small, and it wasn’t very clean; but it was only thing that could pay
at the moment. My old brother Robert didn’t come with us, because he
was at work, he has a boss, who is very bossy and strict. So we tried to
spend an excellent time with the rest of the family. We were so happy in the beach, we sunbathed;
the weather was so hot and sunny and we really enjoyed visiting a lot of places here. When I was
younger we used to spend our summer vacations here with my grandparents.
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Time Expressions in the PAST





Yesterday ( ayer)
Last Week ( la semana pasado )
Last weekend ( el fin de semana pasado )
Last month ( el mes pasado )
Last year…. Etc. ( el año pasado )


2 years ago. ( hace 2 años )
3 months ago ( hace 3 meses )
4 hours ago ( hace 4 horas)
5 days ago. ( hace 5 dias )


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REFERENCES (Referencias)
Bibliography (Bibliografía)








Evans Virginia, y Dooley Jenny (2000): Enterprise 1 Grammar Book . USA, Express
Publishing
Stempleski Susan y Curtis Andy ( 2005): Worldlink 2 Developing English Fluency. USA, Thomson Heinle
Richards C. Jack y otros ( 1997): New Interchange 1 Student’s book. USA, Cambridge University Press.
Redston Chris y Cunningham Gillie (2005) face2face Elementary Student’s book. ITALY, Cambridge
University Press
Evans Virginia y Dooley Jenny ( 2005): Upstream Beginner A1+. USA, Express Publishing.
Jones Ceri ( 2000) American Framework elementary. USA, Richmond Publishing.
Rogers Mickey y otros (2010) OpenMind Level 1. THAILAND, Macmillan
Rogers Mickey, Sturtevant Jane, and Williams Libby ( 2004). Style 1. THAILAND, Macmillan.
IMAGES TAKEN FROM: (Imágenes tomadas de :)
 Hospital: http://www.taringa.net/posts/juegos/4900655/Juegos-de-PC-full-pocos-links-Juegos-Nuevos-en-elpost.html
 Chiapas: http://ladulcelocuradeliz.blogspot.com/2010/08/2010-mexico-bicentenariochiapas.html
 Happy person: http://www.englishuse.itgo.com/activity/health.htm
 Beach: http://www.frogillo.com/pages/children_other.html
 Time: http://daviswebermto.tripod.com/calendar.html
 Ligh bulb: http://themanepoint.blogspot.com/2009_10_01_archive.htm
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