8A – Past simple: regular and irregular verbs

1. was / were and could

The past of be is was / were.

The past of can is could.

Examples:

• I was very tired last night.
• They were at the hotel yesterday.
• We could hear loud music from the street.

Negatives and questions

• We add not for negatives.
• We put the verb before the subject for questions.

Examples:

• She wasn’t at work yesterday.
• Were you late?
• Could you see the screen?

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2. Regular verbs (past simple)

Regular verbs form the past with –ed (or –d).

Examples

• want → wanted
• like → liked
• arrive → arrived

We use the past simple for:

• actions that happened once in the past
• actions that happened many times in the past

Examples:

• I visited Rome last year.
• When I was a child, I walked to school every day.

Negatives & questions

• We use didn’t + infinitive for negatives.
• We use did + subject + infinitive for questions.
• I didn’t enjoy the film.
• Did you finish the book?

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3. Irregular verbs

Some verbs change form in the past.

Examples

• go → went
• see → saw
• take → took
• sleep → slept

Important

• We use the irregular past form only in positive sentences.
• After did / didn’t, we use the infinitive.

✔ She went home early.

✔ Did she go home early?

✘ Did she went home early?

Quiz 1

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8B – there is / there are, some / any + plural nouns

there is / there are

We use there is / there are to say something exists or doesn’t exist.

• There’s a supermarket near my house.
• There are some cafés on this street.
• There isn’t a lift in the building.
• There aren’t any shops open.

Rules

• there is + singular noun
• there are + plural noun
• there is is often contracted to there’s

a / an, some, any

• We use a / an with singular nouns.
• We use some / any with plural nouns.

Examples:

• There’s a lamp in the room.
• There are some books on the table.
• There aren’t any chairs here.
• Are there any people outside?

Use

• some → positive sentences
• any → negative sentences and questions

there is / it is – be careful

• There’s = something exists
• It’s = we know what it is

Examples:

• There’s a phone on the desk.
• It’s my phone.

Quiz 2

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8C – there was / there were

Form and use

there was / there were is the past of there is / there are.

We use them to say something existed or didn’t exist in the past.

	Singular	Plural
Positive	There was …	There were …
Negative	There wasn’t …	There weren’t …
Question	Was there …?	Were there …?

Examples:

• There was a cinema here years ago.
• There were many people at the party.
• There wasn’t a TV in the room.
• There weren’t any shops nearby.
• Was there a bathroom?
• Were there any guests?

Quiz 3