PAST Tenses Exercises and past participle

Ejercicios en inglés de pasado

1. TENSES

2. Past

3. When Abby (be) _______(1) seven years old, she (do, not, like)
_______ _______ _______(2) piano lessons. She (do, not, like) _______
_______ ________(3) to practice, and sometimes she even (cry)
_______(4) when it (be) _______(5) time to practice. Finally, she (stop)
_______(6) taking lessons.
Some of Abby's friends (do, not, quit) _______ _______ _______(7)
their lessons. They (continue) _______(8) to play. After much practice,
they (learn) _______(9) to play very well.
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Simple Past Tense
Fill in the spaces with the correct form of the verb in parentheses in simple past tense.

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About ten years (pass) _______(10) before Abby (become)
_______(11) interested in music or the piano again. After she
(graduate) _______ (12) from high school, Abby (decide)
_______(13) that she (want) _______(14) to study music in
college. She (call) _______(15) the lady who (teach) _______(16)
her when she (be) _______(17) a little girl.
The lady (say) _______(18) she would teach Abby again.

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The lady (need) _______(19) someone to help her daughter
with homework. Abby (say) _______(20) she would help with
homework in exchange for lessons. Because of this, the
piano lessons (cost) _______(21) her nothing!
She (work) _______(22) very hard to catch up. Now she is
making good progress.
Soon she will go to college, majoring in music.

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Simple Past Tense
Fill in the spaces with the correct forms of these regular verbs in simple past tense.
1) I (clean) ________ my car on Monday
2) You (walk) ________ three miles on Tuesday.
3) We (cook) ________ lunch on Wednesday.
4) They (sew) ________ curtains on Thursday.
5) He (film) ________ the movie on Friday.
6) She (play) ________ chess on Saturday.
7) It (rest) ________ from its work on Sunday.

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Note: When a regular verb ends in a consonant + “y”, the
“y” is changed to “ied” to form the simple past tense.
1) I (dry) ________ the dishes after dinner.
2) You (worry) ________ about the last test.
3) We (copy) ________ Sally’s notes from the lecture.
4) They (cry) ________ when their team lost.
5) He (discover) ________ a new star with his telescope
Saturday.
6) She (fry) ________ all of her food until now.
7) It (bury) ________ the bone in the trash.

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1) I (trap) ________ the mouse on Monday
2) You (jog) ________ yesterday morning.
3) We (flip) ________ the pancakes at breakfast.
4) They (chop) ________ firewood last winter.
5) He (mix) ________ the chemicals together in the lab.
6) The nurse (help) ________ the patient to stand up.
7) It (tip) ________ the bucket over
Note: When a verb has one syllable and ends in a consonant + vowel +
consonant, the final consonant is doubled before adding –ed to form the simple
past tense. Exceptions to this rule are words that end in 'w' or 'x', like sewed
and waxed.

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ENote: Some irregular verbs do not change their spelling in the
simple past tense.
1) I (cut) ______the watermelon yesterday.
2) You (shut) ______the door before it rained.
3) They (hurt) ______ their knees on the rocks.
4) He (put) ______ the book back Wednesday.
5) She (hit) ______ the target when she played darts.
6) It (cost) ______ five hundred dollars in 1980.

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Past Continuos or Progressive Tense
1) I [swim] ____ ___________ a lot during the summer.
2) We [sit] _____ ___________on the rocks by the river.
3) They [run] _____ __________faster than anyone else in
that race.
4) He [stop] _____ ___________often to tie his shoe.
5) It [fit] _____ __________until she gained weight.
6) She [wax] _____ __________ her skis before the trip.
7) You [shop] _____ __________all day yesterday.

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Tim is a firefighter. One Sunday, he (spend)
_______ _______ (1) some time at home with
his family. He (play) _______ _______ (2) a
game with two of his daughters.
Tim noticed that his cell phone (ring)
_______ _______ (3), and that the fire alarm
downtown (blare) ______ ______(4), too. He
(not, feel) ______ _______ ______ (5) anxious
to go put out a fire, but he went anyway.

12. While Tim (race) _______ _______ (6) to the fire in his red
pick-up truck, he heard on his police radio that a trailer
(burn) _______ _______(7), and that a small boy (sleep)
_______ _______ (8) in one of its bedrooms. His mother
could not get him out.
At the scene, policemen and firefighters (run) ______
_______ (9) and yelling.
Most of the trailer (already, burn) _______ _______
_______ (10) by that time. Tim said he would go in through
a bedroom window to get the boy. He (not, think)
_______ _______ _______ (11) about his own safety at all.
He wore a mask to protect against the smoke.
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When Tim reached the boy, it appeared that the boy(still,
breathe)______ _______ _______ (12). Tim put his own mask on
the boy and handed him out the window to the other
firefighters. By the time Tim got out of the window, he (not,
breathe) _______ _______ _______ (13) well on his own, and had
to go to the hospital.
Tim got an award for bravery from the City Council at its
next meeting. The members knew he (put) _______ _______ (14)
his life at risk when he went into that trailer.

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1) When I was young, Grandma (usually, bake) _______ _______
_______ bread on Monday mornings.
2) When he attended football games, Jack (always, wear) _______
_______ ______ his team's colors.

3) Although you bought a beautiful new car, you (still, drive)
_______ _______ _______ your old one when we saw you downtown.
4) When we arrived at the track meet, Juanita (already, run)
_______ _______ _______ the 100-meter race.
Note: In this exercise, adverbs, like still, already, usually, frequently,
slowly and others—are used in past progressive verbs. An adverb tells
us something more about the action of the verb. It is said to "modify"
the verb.

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Past Perfect Tense
1) I (study) _______ _______ extremely hard before the test was given.
2) You (pick) _______ _______ a lot of tomatoes from your garden before we had any
ripe ones in ours.
3) We (expect) _______ _______ to find many vacant hotel rooms, but we only found
one.
4) They (play) ______ _______ in the Super Bowl in 1990, so they were more
prepared in 1995.
5) He (enjoy) _______ ______ color photography before he tried black-and-white
film.
6) She (look) _______ ________ all over town for a formal dress before she found
one she liked.
7) It (jump) ______ _______ out of its cage just before we arrived at the zoo!

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8) Mrs. Hughes (fall) _______ _______ several times in the past, so
she decided to get a walker.
9) The choir (sing) _______ _______ together many times before its
tour of Europe last month.
10) Bill (write) ______ _______ three cookbooks before his book on
baking with chocolate was released.
11) Olga was amused when Seventies styles returned; she (wear)
_______ ______ them since high school!

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1) Tony's knee (ache) ______ ______ ______ until the coach bandaged it.
2) Sean and Melinda (not, keep) _____ ______ _______ ______ good
financial records before they got an accountant to help them.

3) The owner of the cookie shop (plan) ______ ______ ______ to add two
more ovens before the building burned.
4) My family and I (live) ______ ______ ______ in the Florida Keys before
we decided to move to the northern part of the state.
5) The peaches (not, hang) ______ ______ ______ ______ on the trees
for long before the birds ate them.
Past Perfect Continuos Tense

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6) The lake (supply) ______ ______ ______ water for the town since
1902. Now it was too polluted.

7) Crystal (paint) _____ ______ ______ the walls before she ran out of
paint.
8) The colony's independent farmers (feel) ______ ______ ______
resentful about English rule and taxation long before the Revolution.
9) Mrs. Esposito (not, cook) ______ ______ ______ ______ very much
until Vincent arrived and asked for his favorite dishes.
10) Until Nigel joined a fraternity, he (call) ______ ______ ______ his
father every Saturday.