I wish there were a simpler answer, but I hope that helps you make sense of things, at least.We use Simple Past if we give past events in the order in which they occured. And, just like before, often the context will make it clear, as what has been said before usually makes it clear whether we're talking about reading part of or all of a text. Again, you have to use additional words to make it completely clear. Though it could also indicate that I read it all if I actually did that. So if someone asked me when I read the paper and it was while I was on the bus that I had read part of the paper, I could use the sentence you ask about without indicating that I read it all. I can't speak for everyone, but in general I think most people wouldn't say that 'reading the paper' means one reads the whole thing - it's different from a novel, which people generally finish (though I suspect that trend is declining). But if you really want to be clear, you generally have to use other words or expressions to specify these details, unless of course the context has made it clear.Īs for your third example, it kind of depends on what the question was. That doesn't explicitly indicate that I did not finish the book, but usually if I started and finished a book all in a given time period, I'd say 'I read a book' (or 'I finished a book') instead of 'I read'. Taking your second example, if somebody asked me what I did yesterday (and I read a book, but neither started or finished it), I'd say 'I read' or perhaps 'I read for half an hour after lunch'.

That said, often we leave out the object when we want to focus on the activity itself. In itself, the verb 'read' doesn't clearly indicate whether we finished the text that is read it refers more to the activity itself. We can also use the past simple to refer to the present or future in hypotheses (when we imagine something). Level: intermediate Past simple and hypotheses Past simple negatives 1 GapFillDragAndDrop_MTYzMjY= Past simple negatives 2 GapFillTyping_MTYzMjc= We didn't get home until very late last night. We use didn't ( did not) to make negativeswith the past simple: Who wrote Don Quixote? Past simple questions 1 ReorderingHorizontal_MTYzMjQ= Past simple questions 2 GapFillTyping_MTYzMjU= We use did to make questions with the past simple:ĭid she play tennis when she was younger?īut questions with who often don't use did: Past simple 1 GapFillTyping_MTYzMjI= Past simple 2 GapFillTyping_MTYzMjM= Past simple questions and negatives

we often use expressions with agowith the past simple:.She played a lot of tennis when she was younger. something that was true for some time in the past:.They always enjoyed visiting their friends. When I was a boy, I walked a mile to school every day. something that happened several times in the past:.something that happened once in the past:.

Here are the most common irregular verbs in English, with their past tense forms: Base form With most verbs, the past tense is formed by adding –ed: call edīut there are a lot of irregular past tense forms in English.

Read past tense example