What is The Simple Past and when do we use it? The simple past tense is used to talk about completed actions in the past. See these examples:
He worked a lot last month.
I ate pizza last night.
Table of Contents
The Simple Past Forms
| Affirmative | Question | Negative |
| I worked. | Did I work? | I did not work. |
| You worked. | Did you work? | You did not work. |
| He/She/It worked. | Did he/she/it work? | He/She/It did not work. |
| We worked. | Did we work? | We did not work. |
| They worked. | Did they work? | They did not work. |
Most of the time the simple past ends in __ed (regular verbs). For examples:
Walk 》walked
He walked 3 miles yesterday morning.
Talk 》talked
He talked about it on the phone last night.
Verbs ending in _e add _d:
- Hope 》hoped
- Decide 》decided
- Invite 》invited
For verbs ending in one stressed vowel + one consonant (except w or y), Double the consonant and add _ed
- Shop 》shopped
- Regret 》regretted
- Plan 》planned
- Stop 》stopped
For verbs ending in consonant + _y, Change y to i and add _ed:
- Hurry 》hurried
- Study 》studied
- Cry 》cried
Note: vowel+ y:
- Play 》played
But many verbs are irregular. It means that the simple past does not end in _ed. Here are a few examples:
Write 》wrote
I wrote him a letter last week.
See 》saw
We saw the movie a few days ago.
Go 》went
He went to the cinema five times last month.
Cut 》cut
I told students to cut the papers into small pieces.
- Shut 》shut
- Eat 》ate
- Put 》put
- Wake 》woke
- Make 》made
- Tell 》told
“To be” Verb
| Subject | Verb |
| I | was |
| You | were |
| He/She/It | was |
| We | were |
| They | were |
She’s in the kitchen. 》She was in the kitchen.
They’re teachers. 》They were teachers.
For making the “to be” verb negative, we add (not) after the verb.
| Positive | Negative |
| I was sleepy. | I was not (wasn’t) sleepy. |
| You were sleepy. | You were not (weren’t) sleepy. |
| He/She/It was sleepy. | He/She/It was not (wasn’t) sleepy. |
| We were sleepy. | We were not (weren’t) sleepy. |
| They were sleepy. | They were not (weren’t) sleepy. |
For making questions with the “to be” verb the structure is like this:
to be + subject+ …
| Statement | Question |
| I was sleepy. | Was I sleepy? |
| They were sleepy. | Were they sleepy? |
Questions and Negatives
To make a Yes/No question we start the question with “Did”. The structure is like this:
Did + subject + base form of the verb
| Statement | Question |
| I ate. | Did I eat? |
| You ate. | Did you eat? |
| He/She/It ate. | Did he/she/it eat? |
| We ate. | Did we eat? |
| They ate. | Did they eat? |
Negative Sentences
For making negative sentences we add “did not” which the contracted form is “didn’t”, before the base form of the verb.
| Positive | Negative | Contraction |
| I talked. | I did not talk. | I didn’t talk. |
| You talked. | You did not talk. | You didn’t talk. |
| He/She/It talked. | He/She/It did not talk. | He/She/It didn’t talk. |
| We talked. | We did not talk. | We didn’t talk. |
| They talked. | They did not talk. | They didn’t talk. |
Wh questions
To make a Wh question or also called an information question the structure is like this:
Wh + did + subject + base form of the verb
| Statement | Question |
| I went. | Where did I go? |
| You watched. | When did you watch it? |
| He/She/It baked. | How did he/she/it bake (the cake)? |
| We said. | What did we say? |
| They met. | Who did they meet? |
In the following example “Do” is the main verb in the sentence.
What did you do at the weekend? (Not: what did at the weekend?)
Note: we do not use”did” in negatives and questions with was/ were.
I was angry because they were late. (Not: I did was angry …)
Was the trip enjoyable? (Not: did was the trip …?)
Usage
The simple past tense is used to talk about completed actions in the past.
I worked a lot yesterday.
Last year, he won the match.
Intermediate Points
What is simple past tense? The simple past tense is a grammar that is used to talk about many kinds of past events and actions.
Common in stories
The simple past is common in stories and descriptions of past events.
Once upon a time, there was a little princess, she didn’t like to get married so, she decided to …
Jack was a six-year-old boy with short black hair.
Finished time words
We often use the simple past with the words referring to finished times.
I saw him yesterday evening, he was planting flowers.
He immigrated to Dubai with his family last month.
General truths
We use the simple past tense to talk about general truths or facts that are in the past.
I lived in my aunt’s house when I was a student.
He and his ancestors all played guitar.
Duration
We use the simple past to talk about the duration of an event that started and stopped in the past.
I worked there for about 5 years.
She was my assistant 2 months ago.
They lived in France for 1 year.
Habits
We also use the simple past to talk about our past habits (the habits that stopped in the past.)
I played guitar when I was 10.
When she was in Spain, she worked in an office as a secretary.
Advanced points
What is simple past tense? The simple past tense is a grammar that is used to talk about actions or events that happened or existed in the past. (The time before now.)
Happened several times
The simple past tense is used to talk about actions, events, or things which happened several times in the past.
I always drank tea between my classes.
He often went there to visit her.
Subordinating Conjunctions
We use the simple past tense with the past continuous to say that the simple past interfered an action which was in progress in the past.
They were playing a game when their parents arrived.
While I was studying, he shut the door.
Second conditional
When we want to say that something would have happened in the present or even the future, if something else happened in the past, we use the simple past tense.
If I had money, I would travel around the world.
They would study harder if they had more opportunities.
Subjunctions
After the words hope, wish, etc we can use the simple past tense to indicate that we hope to have something that we do not have it.
I hope it was possible.
They hope they were in the U.S.
Series of completed actions
When we want to talk about two or more past completed actions or events that followed one another we use the simple past tense.
They ate breakfast together after their daughter got up.
He jumped out of bed and turned off the radio.
We intended to do but didn’t
We can use both the past continuous and the past simple (or even past perfect) to talk about things we intended to do but didn’t.
She was meaning to go shopping with us, but she wasn’t free at the moment. (Or she meant: simple past)
In this article, we learned one of the most important and exciting English grammar. We hope it’s useful for you. If you have any questions about it, just leave a comment.
You can also check out the English Grammar page to read other grammatical articles.