Understanding the Past Simple Tense

The past simple tense is used to describe actions or situations that happened at a specific time in the past. It’s one of the most common tenses in English and is used for completed actions, habits, or events in the past.

1. Structure of the Past Simple Tense

Affirmative Sentences:

• For regular verbs, add -ed to the base verb.

  • Example: She walked to school.

• For irregular verbs, use the past form (there is no specific rule for irregular verbs; they need to be memorized).

  • Example: He went to the store.

Example sentence structure:
Subject + Verb (in past form) + Object

• I played soccer yesterday.

• They traveled to London last year.

Negative Sentences:

To make a negative sentence in the past simple, use did not (didn’t) + the base form of the verb.

• Example: She didn’t like the movie.

• Example: I didn’t go to the party.

Example sentence structure:
Subject + did not (didn't) + Verb (base form) + Object

• He didn’t finish his homework.

• They didn’t visit the museum last weekend.

Interrogative Sentences (Questions):

To form questions, use did + subject + the base form of the verb.

• Example: Did you enjoy the concert?

• Example: Did they call you yesterday?

Example question structure:
Did + Subject + Verb (base form) + Object?

• Did she study for the test?

• Did we arrive late?

2. When to Use the Past Simple Tense

• Completed actions in the past:

  • I visited my grandmother last week.

• Actions that happened at a specific time:

  • He studied English for five years.

• Habits or repeated actions in the past:

  • She played tennis every Saturday when she was younger.

• Historical facts or events:

  • The Titanic sank in 1912.

• Actions that followed one another:

  • I woke up, got dressed, and had breakfast.

3. Examples of Regular and Irregular Verbs in the Past Simple

Regular Verbs:

• Work → Worked
  I worked hard yesterday.

• Watch → Watched
  They watched a movie last night.

• Play → Played
  We played soccer last weekend.

Irregular Verbs:

• Go → Went
  She went to the mall yesterday.

• Buy → Bought
  I bought a new phone last month.

• Eat → Ate
  We ate pizza for dinner last night.

4. Time Expressions Commonly Used with the Past Simple

• Yesterday

• Last week/month/year

• In 1990 (or any specific year)

• Two days ago

• When I was a child

• In the past

• A long time ago

Examples:

• I saw her yesterday.

• He graduated last year.

• They visited us two weeks ago.

5. Practice Exercises

Exercise 1: Fill in the blanks with the correct past simple form of the verb in parentheses.

1. I ________ (eat) a sandwich for lunch yesterday.

2. She ________ (go) to the cinema last weekend.

3. We ________ (play) football in the park yesterday.

4. They ________ (visit) their grandparents last summer.

5. He ________ (not like) the movie.

Exercise 2: Correct the mistakes in these sentences.

1. She don’t went to the party yesterday.

2. I study French last year.

3. They eats pizza last night.

4. He didn’t finished his homework.

5. We played tennis two days ago.

Exercise 3: Write questions in the past simple.

1. (you, eat) breakfast this morning?

2. (they, go) to the beach last summer?

3. (she, watch) the new movie yesterday?

4. (we, arrive) on time?

5. (he, call) you yesterday?