Past Simple Tense
How to use the Past Simple | What's the structure of the Past Simple Tense
Past Simple Tense - When and How to use the Past Simple Tense
When and How to use the Past Simple Tense
We use the Past Simple Tense
when we talk about a finished past event
I met my wife in 1932.
I moved to NY last year.
I swam a lot last summer. - last summer’s gone, no more chance to swim again ‘last summer’ so it’s a finished past event
and we use past simple repeatedly when the actions happened one after another. For example when we are telling a story and the actions followed one after another
I woke up very early yesterday . After I drank a nice cup of tea, I cleaned the house and, for fun, learnt how to dance the Charleston then I started to do the ironing.
As we are talking about a finished past action we very often use terms referring to the past like:
Yesterday, last week/summer/year/ decade..., or (a period of time) ago’
What is the structure?
V2 --> speak spoke spoken
In the past simple, verbs very often end in ‘ed’ - they are called regular verb forms in the past
clean - cleaned
start - started
but many of the verbs are irregular in the past tense
wake up - woke up
drink - drank
learn - learnt
Download the list of the irregular verb form
Printable exercises for practising irregular forms - see at the end of the post!
In questions and negatives we use did/ didn't.
Did you see Susan yesterday?
What did you do last night?
I didn't go to the theatre yesterday.
Don't forget that when you have already used did or didn't in the sentence, the main verb stays in its infinitive (simplest) form.
Learn with videos, further examples, funny situations - Tenses in the English Language | Visual Learning Course
Printable test - Irregular verb forms, past simple and past participle forms
