Last...

week, month, year, night, Saturday, etc.

Yesterday...

morning, evening, night etc. or only yesterday

This time last...

week, month, year, night, Monday, etc.

...ago

Two weeks, four days, three years, six months, etc.

You use these phrases according to the idea that you need to express.

These actions have the “ed” ending in affirmative sentences.

Most verbs simply you add “ed”

Example:

Infinitive → Past Form

work → worked

open → opened

Verbs that in infinitive form ends in “e” you include “d”

Infinitive → Past Form

Example:

dance → danced

exercise - exercised

Other verbs that have the pattern consonant-vowel-consonant

Infinitive → Past Form

stop → stopped

Finally verbs that end with “y” and consonant before. You write “i” in place of “y” and you add “ed”.

Infinitive → Past Form

cry → cried

There are three different ways to articulate this ending.

1. Verbs in infinitive that end with “t” or “d” You pronounce the “ed” ending as /Id/

Infinitive → Past Form

Example A:

visit → visited (visit/Id/)

need → needed (need/Id/)

2. Actions that are voiced sound considering the last consonant(s) in the infinitive form. You pronounce the “ed” ending as /d/

Infinitive → Past Form

Example B:

arrive → arrived (arriv/d/)

email → emailed (email/d/)

3. Verbs that are voiceless sound taking into account the last cononant(s) in the infinitive form. You pronounce the “ed” ending as /t/

Infinitive → Past Form

Example C:

like → liked (lik/t/)

wash → washed (wash/t/)

Watch out!! The actions in brackets ( ) are only representative.

Click on the audio icon to listen to the pronunciation of the examples

You need to see the structure of the affirmative sentences in past. The past phrases can be at the beginning or the end of the sentence when necessary.

• Subject + verb in past “ed” ending + complement

• Yesterday I cooked a delicious meal.

• On Wednesday morning you printed a poster.

• Salma Hayek moved to the U.S.A.

• Mexican students finished their courses in Europe five months ago.

You write the past of regular verbs in the same way with all the subjects in affirmative sentences.