English The Simple Past Tense

Overview

The simple past tense is the one-word past tense of verbs in English. This module looks at regular and irregular verbs in the simple past.

Bringing up the past
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To form the past tense with regular verbs we use the base form of the verb and add the ending “-ed”.

pasttensereg verb
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We cannot use the ending “-ed” with irregular verbs. They follow a different conjugation table.

Examples:

eat (ate), begin (began), break (broke), buy (bought), drive (drove), go (went), know (knew), leave (left), make (made)

I ate a hamburger yesterday.
He drove home last night.
We went to the game last week.
She knew him from earlier.
I left after lunch.
You made a mistake.

The Verb “to be” 

To form the past tense of “to be”, we use “was” and “were”.

pasttense 1
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Examples:
I was happy.
You were honest.
He was funny.

To form the past tense of “to be” in the negative, we simply add “not”.

pasttensenegative
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Examples:
I was not happy.
You were not honest.
He was not funny.

Questions with “was” and “were”:

questionswithwasandwere 1
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Question: Was I happy?      Answer: Yes, I was.
Question: Was he honest?  Answer: No, he was not.
Question: Were they late?  Answer: Yes, they were.

Simple Past with “do”

To form a negative, or to ask and answer questions in the Past Tense we need to use “to do” + a verb in the infinitive.

Negative:

didnew
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Questions:

did2
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Short Answers:

shortanswers did
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Questions with “Wh-” question words: 

whpasttensequestions
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Simple Past Negative Examples

  • I didn’t go to school last night.
  • You didn’t understand.
  • She didn’t eat dinner yesterday.
  • He didn’t go to work.
  • We didn’t have fun last night.
  • They didn’t call you.

Past Simple Question Examples

  • Did you eat dinner?
  • Did he go to work?
  • Did he have lunch?
  • When did they go on vacation?

Highlighted Author:

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Common European Framework of Reference for Languages

The CEFR is an international standard used to describe language ability. Here are specific details of the CEFR for this topic.

General Explanation:
Can understand and use familiar everyday expressions and very basic phrases aimed at the satisfaction of needs of a concrete type. Can introduce him/herself and others and can ask and answer questions about personal details such as where he/she lives, people he/she knows and things he/she has. Can interact in a simple way provided the other person talks slowly and clearly and is prepared to help.
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I can write a short, simple postcard, for example sending holiday greetings. I can fill in forms with personal details, for example entering my name, nationality and address on a hotel registration form.
Spoken Production:
I can use simple phrases and sentences to describe where I live and people I know.
Spoken Interaction:
I can interact in a simple way provided the other person is prepared to repeat or rephrase things at a slower rate of speech and help me formulate what I’m trying to say. I can ask and answer simple questions in areas of immediate need or on very familiar topics.
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I can understand familiar names, words and very simple sentences, for example on notices and posters or in catalogues.
Listening:
I can recognize familiar words and very basic phrases concerning myself, my family and immediate concrete surroundings when people speak slowly and clearly.