Simple Past Tense – English Grammar Exercises for A1
Holiday Memories: Look At This Photo!
Read the sentences about a past holiday. Choose the correct option (A, B, or C) to complete the conversation.
1 “Look at this photo! We ______ in Paris last year. It was magical.”
(A) are
(B) were
(C) was
2 “The hotel room ______ very big, and it had a beautiful view of the city.”
(A) was
(B) is
(C) were
3 “Every night, we ______ to some great music by the beach.”
(A) listen
(B) listend
(C) listened
4 “It ______ very cold on the first day, so we stayed inside the tent.”
(A) was
(B) did
(C) were
5 “My friends and I ______ tennis every afternoon during the trip.”
(A) plaied
(B) played
(C) play
6 “______ you happy with the food at that local restaurant?”
(A) Did
(B) Was
(C) Were
7 “I ______ want to go home because the place was so amazing.”
(A) wasn’t
(B) didn’t
(C) don’t
8 “My sister ______ all our heavy bags to the room by herself.”
(A) carried
(B) carred
(C) carryed
9 “The weather wasn’t good on Tuesday. It ______ all day.”
(A) rainned
(B) raining
(C) rained
10 “Did you like the local museum?” – “No, I ______.”
(A) didn’t
(B) wasn’t
(C) weren’t
11 “We ______ walking when it started to rain heavily.”
(A) stopped
(B) stoped
(C) stop
12 “______ the beach crowded in the morning when you went there?”
(A) Was
(B) Did
(C) Were
13 “My parents ______ at the hotel; they walked down to the market.”
(A) didn’t stayed
(B) didn’t stay
(C) weren’t stay
14 “In this picture, I ______ really tired after the long flight.”
(A) am
(B) were
(C) was
15 “There ______ a lot of friendly people at the street festival last night.”
(A) was
(B) were
(C) had
16 “We ______ our trip for months before we finally travelled.”
(A) planed
(B) plant
(C) planned
17 “Why ______ your brother angry in this picture?”
(A) was
(B) were
(C) did
18 “She ______ to talk to the tour guide, but she didn’t understand the language.”
(A) tryed
(B) tried
(C) trid
19 “The local food was delicious, but the drinks ______.”
(A) didn’t
(B) wasn’t
(C) weren’t
20 “I really ______ the beautiful sunset we watched on our last day.”
(A) was like
(B) liked
(C) likked
ANSWER KEY & EXPLANATIONS
1 (B) were
- Why it’s correct: “We” is a plural subject, so the past tense of “to be” is “were”.
- Why the others are wrong: Option A is the present tense. Option C is a common mistake (using the singular “was” for a plural subject).
2 (A) was
- Why it’s correct: “The hotel room” is a singular subject (it), so it takes “was”.
- Why the others are wrong: Option B is the present tense. Option C is used for plural subjects.
3 (C) listened
- Why it’s correct: “Listen” is a regular verb. We simply add “-ed” to form the past tense.
- Why the others are wrong: Option A is the present tense. Option B is a spelling error (missing the ‘e’).
4 (A) was
- Why it’s correct: “It” is a singular pronoun used for weather, which takes “was”.
- Why the others are wrong: Option B is an auxiliary verb used for actions, not states or adjectives (“cold”). Option C is for plural subjects.
5 (B) played
- Why it’s correct: “Play” ends in a vowel + “y”, so we just add “-ed”.
- Why the others are wrong: Option A is a common mistake (changing ‘y’ to ‘i’ is only for verbs ending in a consonant + y). Option C is the present tense.
6 (C) Were
- Why it’s correct: The question asks about a feeling/state (“happy”), and the subject is “you”, which takes “Were”.
- Why the others are wrong: Option A “Did” requires an action verb. Option B “Was” is for I/he/she/it.
7 (B) didn’t
- Why it’s correct: To make a negative past simple sentence with an action verb (“want”), we use “didn’t” + base verb.
- Why the others are wrong: Option A “wasn’t” cannot be used with a base action verb. Option C is the present tense.
8 (A) carried
- Why it’s correct: “Carry” ends in a consonant + “y”. We drop the “y”, change it to “i”, and add “-ed”.
- Why the others are wrong: Option B and C are common spelling mistakes for this rule.
9 (C) rained
- Why it’s correct: “Rain” is a regular verb; we just add “-ed”.
- Why the others are wrong: Option A is a spelling mistake (doubling the ‘n’ is incorrect here). Option B is the present participle (-ing) form.
10 (A) didn’t
- Why it’s correct: In short answers to “Did…?” questions, we use “didn’t” for the negative.
- Why the others are wrong: Options B and C use the verb “to be”, which doesn’t match the auxiliary “Did” in the question.
11 (A) stopped
- Why it’s correct: “Stop” is a one-syllable verb ending in a single vowel + single consonant (o-p). We must double the final consonant before adding “-ed”.
- Why the others are wrong: Option B is a spelling error. Option C is the present tense.
12 (A) Was
- Why it’s correct: “The beach” is a singular subject. We are asking about a description (“crowded”), so we use “Was”.
- Why the others are wrong: Option B requires an action verb. Option C is for plural subjects.
13 (B) didn’t stay
- Why it’s correct: The negative form for action verbs in the past is “didn’t” + base verb.
- Why the others are wrong: Option A is a common mistake (using didn’t + past verb “-ed”). Option C incorrectly mixes “to be” with an action verb.
14 (C) was
- Why it’s correct: The subject is “I” and “tired” is an adjective describing a state, so we use “was”.
- Why the others are wrong: Option A is the present tense. Option B is used for you/we/they.
15 (B) were
- Why it’s correct: We use “There were” because the noun following it is plural (“a lot of people”).
- Why the others are wrong: Option A is used for singular nouns (“There was a person”). Option C is grammatically incorrect in this structure.
16 (C) planned
- Why it’s correct: “Plan” is a one-syllable verb ending in a single vowel + single consonant (a-n). We double the “n” and add “-ed”.
- Why the others are wrong: Option A is a spelling mistake. Option B is a completely different word (plant).
17 (A) was
- Why it’s correct: “Your brother” is a singular subject (he), and we are asking about an adjective (“angry”).
- Why the others are wrong: Option B is for plural subjects. Option C is used with action verbs, not adjectives.
18 (B) tried
- Why it’s correct: “Try” ends in a consonant + “y”. We change “y” to “i” and add “-ed”.
- Why the others are wrong: Options A and C are common spelling mistakes for this rule.
19 (C) weren’t
- Why it’s correct: “The drinks” is a plural subject. The sentence implies “the drinks weren’t delicious”, so we need the negative plural “to be”.
- Why the others are wrong: Option A requires an action verb to follow it. Option B is for singular subjects.
20 (B) liked
- Why it’s correct: “Like” is a regular verb ending in “e”. We simply add “-d”.
- Why the others are wrong: Option A is a common mistake where learners mix “to be” with an action verb. Option C is a spelling error.
GRAMMAR POINTS TO REMEMBER
- “To be” in the Past Tense:
- Was / Wasn’t: Used with the first-person singular (I) and third-person singular (He, She, It, singular nouns, uncountable nouns). Example: I was tired. The beach was crowded.
- Were / Weren’t: Used with plural subjects (You, We, They, plural nouns). Example: We were in Paris. The drinks weren’t good.
- Note: Never use “did” or “didn’t” when describing adjectives, states of being, or locations.
- Regular Verbs – Spelling Rules for the Past Tense:
- General Rule: Add -ed (listen -> listened).
- Verbs ending in “e”: Just add -d (like -> liked).
- Verbs ending in a Consonant + “y”: Change “y” to “i” and add -ed (carry -> carried, try -> tried). NOTE: If the “y” is preceded by a vowel, just add “-ed” normally (play -> played).
- One-syllable verbs ending in 1 Vowel + 1 Consonant: Double the final consonant and add -ed (stop -> stopped, plan -> planned).
- Forming Negatives and Questions (with action verbs):
- Use didn’t + Base Verb for negative sentences (Example: I didn’t stay — strictly NOT didn’t stayed).
- Use Did + Subject + Base Verb for questions (Example: Did you like it?).