3 Did she open the window? [+] _______________________
4 Terry didn’t wash the car. [+] _______________________
5 Henry walked to college
today. [?] _______________________
6 Suzie cleaned her teeth. [–] _______________________
7 The others arrived late. [?] _______________________
8 Sandra played the piano. [?] _______________________
Language point 55 – more about the
past simple
In Dialogue 3 both
PAST SIMPLE
and
PRESENT PERFECT
tenses are used
– it’s important in English to use them correctly and to understand
the differences; they are both past tenses, but they are not inter-
changeable!
The bank employee says:
One of our customers has
just handed a passport in
He uses the
PRESENT PERFECT
because it happened a very short time
ago – a few minutes, perhaps. But then he asks:
When exactly did you lose
your passport?
He uses the
PAST SIMPLE
here because he’s talking about an event
that happened further back in the past – earlier that day.
Let’s look at these two sentences using go:

She could have said:
You took
all your stuff out of your bag
This would be the normal past simple statement – but here she uses
the auxiliary did (which we usually find only in past simple ques-
tions and negatives) to emphasise the action. And then Shamira uses
did as a tag response:
Oh yes – so I did!
Then she does the same thing again. Liz says:
Maybe the passport fell out then?
and Shamira replies:
Maybe it did
We also use did to make
QUESTION TAGS
in the past simple:
We went to Italy last year. – Did you?
Stuart hurt his knee at football today. – Oh dear, did he?
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Look at the difference between past simple and present perfect tags:
Helen has gone. – Has she?
Helen went yesterday. – Did she?
You haven’t seen Brenda, have you? – No, I haven’t.
You didn’t see Brenda yesterday, did you? – No, I didn’t.
Candace hasn’t come back yet, has she? – No, she hasn’t.
Candace didn’t come back yesterday,
did she? – No, she didn’t.
Finally, notice another use of do as an
AUXILIARY
– the policeman
in Dialogue 2 says:
Do feel free to use my phone
He puts Do before the
COMMAND FORM
(which is the same as the
BASE
-
FORM
– Language point 17) to change it from a command to a
friendly invitation. Here are some more examples:
Do sit down!
Do have a cup of tea!
Do remember to write!
Exercise 5
Decide whether to use the past simple or present perfect from the
brackets.
1 Come and look, everyone – Henry (fell/’s fallen) in the
water!
2 The manager (went/’s gone) out an hour ago.

you were
he/she was
we were
they were
But it’s also unusual in how we form past simple questions and
negatives:
+ Leasa was in the shop
? Was Leasa in the shop?
not ‘Did Leasa be in the shop?
’
– Leasa wasn’t in the shop
not ‘Leasa didn’t be in the shop
’
We don’t use the auxiliary did with the past simple of be.
You will notice, as you get more familiar with colloquial English,
that be and have are much more frequently used in the past simple
than in the present perfect. The same is true for some other
common verbs, for example said /sεd/ (past simple of say) and
thought /θɔt/ (past simple of think).
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Exercise 6
Turn these sentences into statement, question or negative as indi-
cated.
1 Fred wasn’t at home. [?] Was Fred at home?
2 I didn’t have breakfast today. [+] _________________
3 You were late for the meeting. [?] _________________
4 Was James ready? [–] _________________
5 Did they have any money? [–] _________________
6 The children weren’t happy. [+] _________________
7 Was Fiona in town today? [+] _________________
8 My brother had the money. [–] _________________
Dialogue 4
Jenny has some news to tell Candace.
J
ENNY
: Guess who I saw in town today!
C
ANDACE
: Who?
J
ENNY
: Johnny Depp!
C
ANDACE
: You’re joking!
J
ENNY
: No, I really did see him. I was walking down the High

: What a relief – I don’t have to tidy the house.
J
ENNY
: Oh yes you do – Brad Pitt was with him in the café,
and he’s finished filming for the day.
C
ANDACE
: What!!?
J
ENNY
: Better get tidying, Candace. We’re expecting him at
eleven.
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