English Standard Four: Topic 3 – Expressing Past Events (Simple Past Tense)

Main Competence 1.0: Demonstrate mastery of basic English language skills

Specific Competence 1.2: Use appropriate grammar and vocabulary both orally and in writing.

Topic 3: Expressing Past Events
Lesson 1: Simple Past Tense

1. Introduction

People talk about things that happened before now. We use the Simple Past Tense to describe actions or events that started and finished in the past.

Examples:

• I visited my grandmother yesterday.
• Asha cooked rice last night.
• We played football on Saturday.
• Juma went to school yesterday.

2. Time Expressions Used with the Simple Past Tense

These words and phrases tell us when an action happened in the past:

• yesterday
• yesterday morning
• last night
• last week
• last month
• last year
• two days ago
• a week ago
• in 2020

Examples: We cleaned the classroom yesterday. My uncle travelled to Dodoma last week. They visited the market two days ago.

3. Regular Verbs in the Simple Past Tense

Regular verbs form the past tense by adding -ed or -d to the base form. Some verbs need a spelling change.

A. Add -ed

Present form	Past form
work	worked
talk	talked
start	started
plant	planted
clean	cleaned

B. Add -d to verbs ending in -e

Present form	Past form
live	lived
love	loved
dance	danced
close	closed

C. Change consonant + y to -ied

Present form	Past form
study	studied
carry	carried
cry	cried
try	tried

D. Double the final consonant in some short verbs

Present form	Past form
stop	stopped
plan	planned
drop	dropped

4. Irregular Verbs in the Simple Past Tense

Irregular verbs do not form the past tense by simply adding -ed. Their forms change and should be learnt.

Present form	Past form	Present form	Past form
go	went	come	came
eat	ate	drink	drank
see	saw	write	wrote
read	read	buy	bought
bring	brought	take	took
give	gave	speak	spoke
get	got	make	made
find	found	have	had
do	did	meet	met
sleep	slept	run	ran
sing	sang	swim	swam
teach	taught	think	thought
break	broke	win	won

Remember: The past form of read is spelt the same as the present form, but it is pronounced differently.

5. Making Sentences in the Simple Past Tense

A. Affirmative sentences

Structure: Subject + past form of the verb + object or complement.

• Asha washed the clothes.
• We visited our teacher.
• Juma went to the market.

B. Negative sentences

Structure: Subject + did not (didn’t) + base form of the verb.

• Asha did not wash the clothes.
• We did not visit our teacher.
• Juma did not go to the market.

C. Questions

Structure: Did + subject + base form of the verb?

• Did Asha wash the clothes?
• Did you visit your teacher?
• Did Juma go to the market?

Important rule: After did or did not, use the base form of the verb, not the past form. Say “Did she go?” and “She did not go”, NOT “Did she went?” or “She did not went”.

6. Using Was and Were

Was and were are past forms of the verb be.

Subject	Past form	Example
I / He / She / It	was	She was at home.
You / We / They	were	They were at school.

Negative: I was not tired. They were not late.

Questions: Was Asha at home? Were the pupils in class?

7. Simple Past Tense in Our Daily Environment

At home

• Mother cooked ugali yesterday.
• I cleaned my bedroom last Saturday.
• We watched television last night.

At school

• The teacher taught English yesterday.
• The pupils wrote sentences.
• We played a game after the lesson.

At the market

• My father bought tomatoes at the market.
• Asha sold oranges yesterday.
• We saw many people at the market.

At the bus station

• The bus arrived late yesterday.
• Our uncle travelled to Morogoro last week.
• Passengers waited for the bus.

8. Reading Passage: What We Did Last Saturday

Last Saturday, Asha and Juma visited their grandmother in Morogoro. They travelled by bus in the morning. When they arrived, their grandmother welcomed them. Asha helped her grandmother prepare lunch while Juma swept the compound. In the afternoon, they visited a nearby farm and saw cows and goats. In the evening, they ate dinner together and listened to a story. They enjoyed their visit and returned home on Sunday.

Comprehension questions

• When did Asha and Juma visit their grandmother?
• Where did their grandmother live?
• How did they travel?
• What did Asha do?
• What did Juma do?
• Which animals did they see?

9. Classroom Activities

• Verb transformation: Pupils change given present-tense verbs into their past forms, for example play–played and go–went.
• Yesterday activity: Pupils say three things they did yesterday using complete sentences.
• Pair work: In pairs, pupils ask and answer questions beginning with “What did you do yesterday?”
• Sentence building: Pupils make affirmative, negative and question forms from the same prompt.

10. Exercises

Exercise A: Write the past forms of these verbs

1. play   2. wash   3. go   4. eat   5. study   6. come   7. stop   8. see   9. dance   10. buy

Exercise B: Fill in the blanks using the correct past form of the verbs in brackets

• We ______ (visit) our aunt yesterday.
• Juma ______ (go) to school last Monday.
• Mother ______ (cook) rice last night.
• The pupils ______ (write) their work.
• I ______ (see) a big bus yesterday.

Exercise C: Change these sentences into negative

• Asha washed the plates.
• They played football.
• He went to the market.
• We ate bananas.

Exercise D: Change these sentences into questions

• Juma cleaned the classroom.
• They visited Dodoma.
• She bought a book.
• You watched television.

Exercise E: Choose the correct answer

1. Yesterday, I ______ to school. (go / went / goes)
2. She ______ her homework last night. (do / did / does)
3. They ______ football on Saturday. (played / play / plays)
4. Did you ______ the teacher? (saw / see / sees)
5. My father ______ a new phone last month. (buy / bought / buys)
6. We did not ______ late. (arrived / arrive / arrives)
7. The pupils ______ in the classroom yesterday. (was / were / is)
8. Asha ______ her room yesterday. (clean / cleans / cleaned)

Exercise F: Fill in the blanks with was or were

• I ______ at home yesterday.
• They ______ at the bus station.
• She ______ happy.
• We ______ in the classroom.
• The book ______ on the table.

Exercise G: Guided writing

Write five sentences about what you did last weekend. Use at least three past-tense verbs.

11. Answer Guide

Exercise A: played, washed, went, ate, studied, came, stopped, saw, danced, bought.

Exercise B: visited; went; cooked; wrote; saw.

Exercise C: Asha did not wash the plates. They did not play football. He did not go to the market. We did not eat bananas.

Exercise D: Did Juma clean the classroom? Did they visit Dodoma? Did she buy a book? Did you watch television?

Exercise E: 1. went; 2. did; 3. played; 4. see; 5. bought; 6. arrive; 7. were; 8. cleaned.

Exercise F: was; were; was; were; was.

Exercise G: Answers will differ. Check that pupils use the Simple Past Tense correctly.

12. Assessment

A pupil should be able to:

• Explain when the Simple Past Tense is used.
• Identify time expressions that refer to the past.
• Change regular and irregular verbs into their past forms.
• Construct affirmative, negative and interrogative sentences.
• Use was and were correctly.
• Talk and write about past events in familiar settings.

13. Support for Slow Learners

• Begin with familiar actions pupils performed yesterday, such as played, walked, cooked and visited.
• Use picture cards and real objects to connect actions with words.
• Teach a few irregular verbs at a time and revise them regularly.
• Provide sentence frames such as “Yesterday, I ______.”
• Allow pupils to practise orally with a supportive partner before writing.
• Give extra guided practice on the use of did and the base form of the verb.

14. Teaching and Learning Resources

• Verb flashcards and picture cards.
• Sentence strips and word cards.
• Chalkboard or whiteboard.
• English textbook and pupils’ exercise books.
• Pictures showing familiar activities at home, school, market and bus station.

15. Summary

The Simple Past Tense is used to talk about completed actions and events in the past. Regular verbs usually take -ed or -d, while irregular verbs have special past forms. In negative sentences and questions with did, use the base form of the verb. Use was with I, he, she and it, and were with you, we and they.

In the next lesson, pupils will learn another way of expressing past events: the Past Continuous Tense.