Past Simple for Beginners.

USE

Usamos el Past Simple para hablar del pasado. En español se puede traducir por el pretérito indefinido (I danced – Yo bailé) o el pretérito imperfecto (I danced – yo bailaba) Lo más importante es que es el tiempo en el que contamos las cosas que nos sucedieron, es decir, las narraciones.

FORM

Para construir el Past Simple debes saber dos cosas, una buena (good news) y otra mala (bad news):

Good News :)

El Past Simple es muy fácil de construir, fíjate bien:

Affirmative*	Negative**	Interrogative***
I danced.	I didn't dance.	Did I dance?
You danced.	You didn't dance.	Did you dance?
He/She/It danced.	He/She/It didn't dance.	Did he/she/it dance?
We danced.	We didn't dance.	Did we dance?
You danced.	You didn't dance.	Did you dance?
They danced.	They didn't dance.	Did they dance?

* Como ves sólo tienes que añadir -ed al final del verbo regular para la forma afirmativa
** La forma negativa se forma con el auxiliar didn't + infinitive
*** La forma interrogativa se hace con el auxiliar did delante del sujeto

Bad News :|

Además de los verbos regulares existen otros que son irregulares. Se llaman así porque su forma del Past Simple en afirmativa es diferente.
Estas formas debes aprenderlas de oído, y cuando digo de oído quiero decir que es mejor aprendarlas escuchándola. Mucha gente se las aprende de memoria leyendo listas de verbos irregulares... y al final no se familiarizan con su pronunciación y no son capaces de entender cuando las escuchan.
To Do es un verbo irregular, y su Past Simple es Did. Pero solo para la forma afirmativa (Don't panic!), fíjate bien:

Affirmative*	Negative**	Interrogative***
I did some homework.	I didn't do any homework.	Did I do any homework?
You did some homework.	You didn't do any homework.	Did you do any homework?
He/She/It did some homework.	He/She/It didn't do any homework.	Did he/she/it do any homework?
We did some homework.	We didn't do any homework.	Did we do any homework?
You did some homework.	You didn't do any homework.	Did you do any homework?
They did some homework.	They didn't do any homework.	Did they do any homework?

LET'S PRACTICE

Puedes aprender pronunciación de verbos regulares e irregulares rapeando con Fluency MC:
IRREGULAR VERBS RAP:

Y en este otro Fluency MC te dice la Base Form y tú tienes que decir el Past Simple y el Past Participle:

-ED Pronunciation
Con éste aprenderás las a pronunciar bien todos los verbos regulares en past simple cuando acaban en -ED.

Modal Verbs: Ability. Advice, Necessity and Obligation. Possibility and Certainty.

Hi, everyone! We're going to revise the form and use of modal verbs.

Form.

The first thing we have to know is the type of modal verbs there are:

Pure modals	Semi-modals
can	be able to
could
may	have better
might
must	have to
shall
should
ought to
will
would
need ***	need to

*** need is a special verb since as a modal it is almost always negative such as you needn't come to work tomorrow
The pure modals are used just exactly as the auxiliary verbs in the sentence word order.

Subject	Modal / Auxiliary	Verb	Object	Manner, place and time
You	shouldn't	be	so stressed	for driving
You	needn't	drive		to school
I	can	give	you	a lift

Their main difference is that pure modals are invariable forms, that is, we can't use them in the past or future forms.
Instead, the semi-modals can be used in the past, future and the rest of tenses too.

Use.

For understanding the meaning and use of the modal verbs we can establish different uses: ability; advice, necessity, and obligation; possibility and certainty.

Ability

We express ability by means of the modals can and could and the semi-modal be able to.
Here a presentation to learn more about the modals of ability:

Modals - Ability from thelecturette.com

Exercises:

• http://www.perfect-english-grammar.com/modal-verbs-of-ability-exercise-1.html
  
• http://usefulenglish.ru/grammar/modal-verbs-exercise-one
  
• http://www.learnenglish-online.com/grammar/modals/tests/modalability.html
  

Advice, necessity, and obligation

For expressing advice we have the modals:

• should and ought to (ought to isn't usually used in the negative and interrogative form) to express advice.
  
• need to to express necessity (only in the affirmative form).
  
• needn't (without to) and the don't/doesn't have to are used to make clear there's no need to do something.
  
• must and have to express obligation.
  
• mustn't for expressing prohibition (obligation of not doing)
  

For more information, you can watch these presentations

• Advice
  

Advice, should, shouldn't, ought to, had better, and had better not from Online English Courses

Exercises:

http://web2.uvcs.uvic.ca/elc/studyzone/330/grammar/330-modals-advice1.htm

• Necessity
  

Modals of necessity from UTPL UTPL

Exercises:

http://usefulenglish.ru/grammar/modal-verbs-exercise-three

• Obligation
  

Modals for obligation and prohibition from David Mainwood

Exercises.

http://www.autoenglish.org/modalverbs/ModalsObligation.htm

Possibility and certainty

The modal verbs we use to express possibility and certainty are may, might, can, could, must

• to express possibility in the present or the future we may (may not), might (mightn't) and could.
  
• To express logical deduction we use must (in the affirmative form) or can't (in the negative form).
  
• When we are sure something is true we use must.
  
• When we are sure something is impossible we use can't.
  

Modals of Possibility and Certainty from David Mainwood

Exercises:

http://speakspeak.com/english-grammar-exercises/intermediate/intermediate-grammar-exercise-modal-verbs-for-present-probability-must-cant-could-may-might

Reported Speech (Revision and Exercises)

Hi, there!

It's time to revise "Reported speech". The basic idea is that you use 'Reported Speech' (or estilo indirecto in Spanish) for telling what other people told.

Here is a video you should watch because it offers many examples of tense shift.

You could practise the reported speech with the following exercises.

• Mixed Tense Reported Statement Exercise
• Present Simple Reported Yes/No Question Exercise
• Present Simple Reported Wh Question Exercise
• Mixed Tense Reported Question Exercise
• Reported Requests and Orders Exercise
• Reported Speech Mixed Exercise 1 (difficult)
• Reported Speech Mixed Exercise 2 (difficult) 

Here's a bunch of exercises to practise reporting verbs.

• Reporting verbs exercises 1.
• Reporting verbs exercises 2.
• Reporting verbs exercises 3.