Keep calm and carry on!
● Module 2 – Past Tenses – Talking about Work History Now
Lesson 5:
The Past Simple.
Learning Objective:
To talk about completed projects, previous jobs, and specific past events with dates.
Lesson 5:
I Finished.
I finished the report yesterday.
You are explaining why a previous project failed or succeeded. If you don’t use the Past Simple, it sounds like the project is still happening, which causes confusion about deadlines.
The Past Simple tense, is used to talk about events that occurred in the past.
We use verb + ed (or irregular forms).
- Intent: To mark an action as “finished” and “closed”.
- Examples:
- I finished the report yesterday. (Eu terminei o relatório ontem.)
- We signed the contract last week. (Nós assinamos o contrato na semana passada.)
20 work-related verbs, with their Past Simple form, and an example sentence.
| Verb (Base Form) | Past Simple | Example Sentence (Past Simple) |
|---|---|---|
| work | worked | I worked late yesterday. |
| start | started | She started a new project last week. |
| finish | finished | We finished the report on Friday. |
| call | called | I called the client in the morning. |
| send | sent | He sent the email after the meeting. |
| meet | met | We met the new manager yesterday. |
| plan | planned | They planned the presentation carefully. |
| help | helped | I helped my colleague with the task. |
| create | created | She created a new marketing strategy. |
| develop | developed | The team developed a new software tool. |
| manage | managed | He managed the project successfully. |
| organize | organized | We organized the files last week. |
| review | reviewed | I reviewed the contract yesterday. |
| discuss | discussed | We discussed the proposal in the meeting. |
| prepare | prepared | She prepared the slides for the presentation. |
| deliver | delivered | They delivered the product on time. |
| solve | solved | The technician solved the problem quickly. |
| improve | improved | The company improved its service last year. |
| train | trained | The manager trained the new employees. |
| complete | completed | We completed the project last month. |
Now let’s have some Active Practice.
- Transformation: Change “I send the email” to the past.
- Sentence Creation: Mention one thing you completed on Friday.
- Role-play: Tell a story about your first day at your current company.
Answers
- Transformation: Change “I send the email” to the past. Answer: I sent the email.
- Sentence Creation: Mention one thing you completed on Friday.
- I completed a report on Friday.
- I finished a project task on Friday.
- I sent an important email to a client on Friday.
- I prepared a presentation for my team on Friday.
- I reviewed some documents on Friday.
- Role-play: Tell a story about your first day at your current company.
Example 1: On my first day at the company, I met my manager and the team. They showed me the office and explained my responsibilities. I also attended a short meeting and started learning about my projects.
Example 2: My first day was very busy. I arrived early, met my colleagues, and set up my computer. Later, I joined a team meeting and started working on my first task.
Checkpoint!
“What did you do in your last role?” Give two specific examples of tasks you finished.
Next: Lesson 6: Past Continuous.
We will learn how to describe the context or background of a past situation, often used when explaining “what went wrong”.
Lessons selected for you.
