(Mi padre murió en el año 1989.)
Compare:
My father was dying.
(Mi padre se estaba muriendo.)
Forms: talked, paid, went, came.
Questions and negatives are made with did and the infinitive:
| Positive statement | They talked. | Mary went. | |
| Negative statement | They didn't talk. | Mary didn't go. | |
| Positive Question | Did they talk? | Did Mary go? | |
| Negative Question | Didn't they talk? | Didn't Mary go? |
We basically use the past simple to refer to events in past time that are considered as completed (compare past continuous) and without a specific consequence in present time (compare present perfect).
We can use the past simple to talk about a single short event or action, e.g.:
| My father died in 1989. (Mi padre murió en el año 1989.) Compare: My father was dying. (Mi padre se estaba muriendo.) |
| Susan went to live in Canada 10 years ago. (Susan fue a vivir a Canadá hace 10 años.) Compare: Susan has lived in Canada for 10 years. (Hace 10 años que Susan vive en Canadá.) Susan has lived in Canada since 1994. (Susan vive en Canadá desde 1994.) |
| We didn't go to bed until after midnight. (No nos fuímos a la cama hasta después de medianoche.) |
| It's two months since I saw Peter. (Hace dos meses que no veo a Peter.) |
| Jack finished his degree three years ago. (Jack acabó la carrera hace tres años.) |
 | |||
 |
| ||
| |||
| As a child, I always walked to school. (De pequeña, siempre iba a la escuela caminando.) |
| Last year Mary played tennis almost every weekend. (El año pasado Mary jugaba a tenis casi cada fin de semana.) Compare: One day, when Mary was playing tennis, she broke her racket. (Un día, cuando Mary jugaba a tenis, rompió la raqueta.) |
We can use the past simple to talk about a long event, e.g.:
| Last Saturday it rained all morning. (El sábado pasado llovió toda la mañana.) Compare: At 10 o'clock it wasn't raining. (A las tres no llovía.) Was it raining when you went out? (¿Llovía cuando saliste?) |
In all these cases, the events or actions are considered as complete.
As distinct from Spanish, English uses the past simple for recent (but complete) actions, e.g.:
| A: (Algo ininteligible.) |
| B: Sorry, what did you say? (Perdona, ¿qué has dicho?) |
English also uses the past simple for events during the day when the relevant part of the day is finished, e.g.:
| (At 12 o'clock) What did you have for breakfast (today)? (¿Qué has tomado para desayunar (hoy)?) |
| I finished work at half past five today. (Hoy he acabado de trabajar a las cinco y media.) |
Notice that a past tense, not a perfect, is obligatory when we refer to the past using a Time Adverbial, e.g.:
| A: When did they come? (¿Cuándo vinieron o han venido?) |
| B: They came last year/yesterday/10 years ago/ last September/in 1999 / this morning/five minutes ago. (Vinieron el año pasado/ayer/hace 10 años/el setiembre pasado. Han venido esta mañana / hace cinco minutos.) |
Notice also the use of last (= the last time) and first (= the first time) with the past simple, e.g.:
| Tim first met Carolyn on holiday. (Tim conoció a Carolyn por primera vez durante unas vacaciones.) |
| We last went to the theatre over a year ago. (La última vez que fuímos al teatro fue hace un año.) |
In reference to a person's achievements (and without a time adverbial), if we use the past simple, the implication is that the person is dead, e.g.:
| Mary Proctor wrote three novels and many short stories. (Mary Proctor escribió tres novelas y muchos cuentos.) Compare: Sally Jennings has written three novels and many short stories. (This implies that Sally Jennings is still alive.) |
| |||
|
| ||
| |||