Past Simple Tense
The Past Simple Tense is used to describe actions or events that happened and were completed in the past. It is also used to talk about a series of events in the past.
Formation
The simple past tense is formed differently for regular and irregular verbs:
- Regular Verbs: Add -ed to the base form of the verb.
- walk → walked
- play → played
- Irregular Verbs: These verbs do not follow a specific pattern and must be learned individually.
- go → went
- see → saw
| Subject | Regular Verb Example (to walk) | Irregular Verb Example (to go) |
|---|---|---|
| I / You / We / They / He / She / It | walked | went |
- Affirmative: I walked, She went
- Negative: I did not walk, She did not go (or She didn’t go)
- Interrogative: Did you walk?, Did she go?
Usage
- Completed Actions in the Past: Describes actions that happened once and are now finished.
- He visited his grandmother last weekend.
- Series of Past Events: Used to describe a sequence of events that took place in the past.
- She woke up, brushed her teeth, and went to work.
- Past Habits or Routines: Describes actions that were habitual or repeated in the past.
- They always walked to school when they were kids.
Examples:
- Affirmative: We watched a movie last night.
- Negative: He didn’t finish his homework.
- Interrogative: Did they visit their friends?
Notes
- For regular verbs ending in -e, just add -d (e.g., love → loved).
- For verbs ending in a consonant + -y, change the y to i and add -ed (e.g., carry → carried).
- The simple past tense is often used with time expressions such as yesterday, last week, in 2005, two days ago, etc.
Common Time Expressions
| Expression | Example |
|---|---|
| Yesterday | I called him yesterday. |
| Last week/month/year | We traveled last summer. |
| Ago | She left two hours ago. |
| In + past time | He moved here in 2010. |
