Le prétérit simple en anglais (Past Simple) | 6ème

What is the Past Simple?

Le Past Simple (ou prétérit simple) est le temps utilisé en anglais pour parler d'actions terminées dans le passé.

Past Simple

Temps verbal utilisé pour décrire des actions ou des états qui se sont produits à un moment précis du passé et qui sont maintenant terminés.

EXEMPLE

I played football yesterday. (J'ai joué au foot hier)
She visited her grandmother last week. (Elle a visité sa grand-mère la semaine dernière)
They watched a movie last night. (Ils ont regardé un film hier soir)

Les verbes réguliers

Formation

Pour les verbes réguliers, on ajoute -ED à la base verbale.

Base verbale + ED = Past Simple

EXEMPLE

play → played
watch → watched
visit → visited
listen → listened

Règles d'orthographe

1. Verbe terminé par -E : on ajoute seulement -D

EXEMPLE

like → liked
love → loved
dance → danced

2. Verbe terminé par consonne + Y : Y devient I + ED

EXEMPLE

study → studied
try → tried
cry → cried

3. Verbe court (1 syllabe) terminé par consonne-voyelle-consonne : on double la consonne finale

EXEMPLE

stop → stopped
plan → planned
travel → travelled

Prononciation du -ED

Prononciation	Après	Exemples
/t/	sons sourds (k, p, f, s, ch, sh)	walked, stopped, laughed
/d/	sons sonores et voyelles	played, loved, listened
/ɪd/	sons t et d	wanted, needed, visited

Les verbes irréguliers

⚠️

Les verbes irréguliers ne suivent pas la règle du -ED. Il faut les apprendre par cœur !

Les 20 verbes irréguliers essentiels

Base	Past Simple	Traduction
be	was/were	être
have	had	avoir
do	did	faire
go	went	aller
come	came	venir
see	saw	voir
take	took	prendre
make	made	faire/fabriquer
get	got	obtenir
give	gave	donner
eat	ate	manger
drink	drank	boire
write	wrote	écrire
read	read (même prononciation change: /red/)	lire
say	said	dire
tell	told	raconter
think	thought	penser
know	knew	savoir
buy	bought	acheter
find	found	trouver

Le verbe BE au passé

Le verbe BE (être) a deux formes au passé :

Pronom	Past Simple
I	was
You	were
He / She / It	was
We	were
They	were

EXEMPLE

I was happy yesterday.
They were at school this morning.
She was tired after the party.

Forme négative

Avec les verbes ordinaires

Sujet + DID NOT (DIDN'T) + base verbale

⚠️

Attention ! Avec DID/DIDN'T, le verbe principal reste à la base verbale (sans -ED) !

EXEMPLE

I didn't play football. (PAS: I didn't played)
She didn't go to school.
They didn't watch TV.

Avec BE

Sujet + WAS NOT (WASN'T) / WERE NOT (WEREN'T)

EXEMPLE

I wasn't tired.
They weren't at home.

Forme interrogative

Avec les verbes ordinaires

DID + sujet + base verbale ?

EXEMPLE

Did you play football? (As-tu joué au foot ?)
Did she go to the cinema? (Est-elle allée au cinéma ?)
Did they watch the match? (Ont-ils regardé le match ?)

Réponses courtes

Yes, I did. / No, I didn't.
Yes, she did. / No, she didn't.

Avec BE

WAS/WERE + sujet ?

EXEMPLE

Was he happy? Yes, he was. / No, he wasn't.
Were they at school? Yes, they were. / No, they weren't.

Les marqueurs de temps du passé

Ces mots indiquent qu'on parle du passé :

Anglais	Français
yesterday	hier
last week / month / year	la semaine / le mois / l'année dernière
last night	hier soir
... ago	il y a ...
in 2020	en 2020
when I was young	quand j'étais jeune

EXEMPLE

I visited London last summer.
She called me two days ago.
We met in 2019.

Les questions avec WH-

WH- word + DID + sujet + base verbale ?

Question	Exemple
What	What did you eat? (Qu'as-tu mangé ?)
Where	Where did she go? (Où est-elle allée ?)
When	When did they arrive? (Quand sont-ils arrivés ?)
Why	Why did he leave? (Pourquoi est-il parti ?)
Who	Who did you see? (Qui as-tu vu ?)
How	How did you come? (Comment es-tu venu ?)

Practice!

Put the verbs in the Past Simple:
- I (play) _______ tennis yesterday.
- She (go) _______ to Paris last year.
- They (not watch) _______ TV last night.
- (be) _______ you at school yesterday?
Make questions:
- you / visit / London / ? → _______
- she / eat / pizza / ? → _______
- where / they / go / ? → _______
Choose the correct form:
- Did you (saw / see) the film?
- I (didn't went / didn't go) to the party.
- She (was / were) very happy.

Points clés à retenir

Past Simple = action terminée dans le passé
Verbes réguliers : + ED
Verbes irréguliers : à apprendre par cœur
BE → was/were
Négatif : didn't + base verbale
Question : Did + sujet + base verbale ?
Marqueurs : yesterday, last..., ...ago