Simple Past Tense - Formula & Structure
- erohinadasha94
- Feb 7
- 2 min read
The Simple Past Tense is used to describe actions, events, or situations that happened and were completed in the past.
Structure
Affirmative
Subject + V2
I/You/He/She/It/We/They | V2 |
I bought a new car.
She visited her grandmother.
They played football yesterday.
Negative
Subject + did + not + V1
I/You/He/She/It/We/They | did + not + V1 |
I did not buy a new car.
She did not visit her grandmother.
They didn’t play football yesterday.
Question
Did + Subject + V1
Did | I/You/He/She/It/We/They + V1 |
Did you buy a new car?
Did she visit her grandmother?
Did they play football yesterday?
Auxiliary Verb (Did)
The auxiliary verb "did" is used in negative and interrogative sentences in the Simple Past Tense. It helps form questions and negations but does not have a meaning on its own.
Main Verb
In the Simple Past Tense, the main verb describes an action that happened in the past. It changes its form depending on whether it is regular or irregular.
Regular Verbs
For regular verbs, the past tense is formed by adding "-ed" to the base verb.
walk → walked
play → played
clean → cleaned
Spelling Rules for Regular Verbs
For verbs ending in -e, add -d
love → loved
like → liked
For verbs ending in a consonant + y, change '-y' to '-i' + '-ed'
cry → cried
study → studied
For short verbs ending in consonant-vowel-consonant, double the last consonant + "-ed"
stop → stopped
plan → planned
Irregular Verbs
Irregular verbs do not follow a fixed pattern and have unique past tense forms.
go → went
eat → ate
buy → bought
write → wrote
When using "did" in negative and interrogative sentences, the main verb remains in its base form.
✗ She did not went to school.
✓ She did not go to school.
✗ Did you walked in the park?
✓ Did you walk in the park?