Usages and grammar explanations for the simple past tense.
The Simple Past Tense is used to describe actions, events, or situations that happened and were completed in the past. It is one of the most commonly used tenses in English for talking about past experiences and completed actions.
Formula
Affirmative: Subject + V2
I/You/He/She/It/We/They | V2 |
I played tennis.
She went home early.
Negative: Subject + did + not + V1
I/You/He/She/It/We/They | did + not + V1 |
I did not play tennis. = I didn't play tennis.
She did not go home early. = She didn't go home early.
Question: Did + Subject + V1
Did | I/You/He/She/It/We/They + V1 |
Did you play tennis?
Did she go home early?
Time Expressions
yesterday, last night, last week, last month, last year, last summer, last Friday, a moment ago, an hour ago, two days ago, three weeks ago, a year ago, in 1999, in May, in the past, when I was a child, when I was young, once, once upon a time, the other day, the day before yesterday
Usages
To talk about actions that started and ended in the past.
We had dinner at 8 PM.
She visited Paris in 2020.
I watched a movie last night.
He bought a new phone yesterday.
Dinosaurs lived millions of years ago.
In ancient times, people traveled on horseback.
To talk about actions that happened regularly in the past.
We went camping every summer.
She visited her parents every weekend.
They always played football after school.
When I was a child, I played outside every day.
He often visited her grandmother on Sundays.
My grandfather sometimes told us stories before bedtime.
To describe multiple actions happening one after another in the past.
I got up, stretched, and went to the kitchen.
She opened the book and read a few pages.
He woke up, brushed his teeth, and left for work.
We packed our bags, called a taxi, and left for the airport.
She entered the room, turned on the lights, and sat on the sofa.
Spelling Rules
For most regular verbs add -ed
walk → walked
play → played
clean → cleaned
For regular verbs ending in -e, add only -d
live → lived
love → loved
change → changed
For regular verbs ending in a consonant + y, change -y to -ied
cry → cried
study → studied
carry → carried
For one-syllable regular verbs ending in consonant-vowel-consonant, double the last consonant and add -ed
stop → stopped
plan → planned
drop → dropped
Some verbs are irregular
go → went
eat → ate
see → saw
have → had