Table of Contents
What Is the Simple Past Tense?
The simple past, also known as the past simple or preterite, is the fundamental form of the past tense. It is used to describe past actions and events that occurred before the present moment.
The simple past of regular verbs is formed by adding -ed to the bare infinitive (e.g., play → played, watch → watched, etc.). However, there are hundreds of irregular verbs with various forms (e.g., go => went, do => did, etc.).
This page will present the simple past tense:
- Its form
- And its use.
The Simple Past of Regular And Irregular Verbs
Before you proceed with the lesson, read the following passage and observe how the verbs are formed and used.
“Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was an Austrian musician and composer. He lived from 1756 to 1791. He started to compose at the age of five and wrote more than 600 pieces of music. He was only 35 years old when he died.”
The verbs “was, lived, started, wrote, died” are in the simple past tense.
Notice that:
- “lived,” “started,” and “died” are regular past forms.
- “was” and “wrote” are irregular past forms.
The simple past of regular verbs
We form the simple past of regular verbs by adding -ed to the verb.
For example, the verbs “live, start, and die” have regular past forms: “lived, started, and died“.
The rule for forming the simple past of regular verbs is as follows:
| Verb + ed |
|---|
Examples:
| The Infinitive | The Simple Past |
|---|---|
| live | lived |
| start | started |
| die | died |
| visit | visited |
| play | played |
| watch | watched |
| phone | phoned |
| marry | married |
For the spelling of the -ed forms, click here.
The Simple Past Of Irregular verbs
A verb that does not follow the -ed rule is called an irregular verb. The simple past of irregular verbs has different forms.
For example, the verbs “was, wrote” are irregular past forms. “Was” is the simple past of “to be,” and “wrote” is the simple past of “write.”
More on the simple past of “to be” here.
There is no rule for these verbs; you should learn them by heart.
Examples:
| The Infinitive | The Simple Past |
|---|---|
| be | was/were |
| come | came |
| do | did |
| drive | drove |
| give | gave |
| go | went |
| meet | met |
| run | ran |
| see | saw |
| speak | spoke |
| swim | swam |
| write | wrote |
As you can see, we cannot predict the simple past forms of these verbs. They are irregular. Here is a list of irregular verbs.
The Simple Past Of Regular And Irregular Verbs (Form And Use)
The Forms of the Simple Past Tense
1. The Affirmative Form of the Simple Past:
The simple past takes the following forms in the affirmative:
- Regular verbs (e.g., watch, play, visit, etc.): Add -ed to the verb → watched, played, visited
- Irregular verbs (e.g., write, do, speak, etc.): Irregular verbs have various forms and must be learned by heart.
- write → wrote
- do → did
- speak → spoke
| I, you, he, she, it, we, they | played tennis last Sunday. |
| watched the movie last Saturday. | |
| wrote the report two days ago. | |
| did the homework yesterday evening. |
Examples:
- I played tennis with my friends yesterday.
- I finished lunch and did my homework.
2. The Interrogative Form of the Simple Past:
To ask questions, the simple past takes the following form:
| AUXILARY VERB “DID” + SUBJECT + BASE FORM OF THE VERB |
|---|
| Did you have lunch? |
| Did | I, you, he, she, it, we, they | play tennis? |
| watch the movie? | ||
| write the report? | ||
| do the homework? |
Examples:
- Did you play basketball yesterday?
- Did you visit Paris last holiday?
- Did you watch television?
- Did you go to the gym?
- Did you do the homework?
The Negative Form of the Simple Past
The rule for the negative forms of the simple past is as follows:
| DID NOT/DIDN’T + BASE FORM OF THE VERB |
|---|
| I did not/didn’t have lunch |
| I, you, he, she, it, we, they | did not/didn’t | play tennis last Sunday. |
| watch the movie last Saturday. | ||
| write the report two days ago. | ||
| do the homework yesterday evening. |
Examples:
- I didn’t play tennis last Sunday.
- I didn’t watch the movie last Saturday.
- I didn’t write the report two days ago.
- I didn’t do the homework yesterday evening.
- I didn’t like the food served at the wedding party last Saturday.
- I didn’t eat it.
The Use of the Simple Past
The simple past is used primarily to describe events in the past, but it also has some other uses. Here are the main uses of the simple past:
- Finished Events in the Past:
- William Shakespeare wrote Hamlet.
- Christopher Columbus discovered America in 1492.
- He kissed her and left.
- Past Habitual Action:
- I visited them every day for a year.
- I drove to work every day when I was in sales with that company.
- Events That Were True for Some Time in the Past:
- He lived in Paris for 20 years.
- They talked on the phone for ten minutes.
Remember: “DIDN’T” is the short form of “did not.” You can say either:
- I did not play basketball, or
- I didn’t play basketball.
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