Simple Past Tense

Simple Past Tense

The simple past tense is sometimes called the "preterit tense". We can use several tenses and forms to talk about the past, but the simple past tense is the one we use most often.
In this lesson we look at the structure and use of the past simple tense, followed by a quiz to check your understanding.

How do we make the Past Simple Tense?

To make the past simple tense, we use:

• past form only

or

auxiliary did + base form

Here you can see examples of the past form and base form for irregular verbs and regular verbs:

	V1 base	V2 past	V3 past participle
regular verb	work explode like	worked exploded liked	worked exploded liked	The past form for all regular verbs ends in -ed.
irregular verb	go see sing	went saw sang	gone seen sung	The past form for irregular verbs is variable. You need to learn it by heart.
			You do not need the past participle form to make the past simple tense. It is shown here for completeness only.

The structure for positive sentences in the past simple tense is:

subject	+	main verb
		past

The structure for negative sentences in the past simple tense is:

subject	+	auxiliary verb	+	not	+	main verb
		did				base

The structure for question sentences in the past simple tense is:

auxiliary verb	+	subject	+	main verb
did				base

The auxiliary verb did is not conjugated. It is the same for all persons (I did, you did, he did etc). And the base form and past form do not change. Look at these examples with the main verbs go and work:

	subject	auxiliary verb		main verb
+	I			went	to school.
	You			worked	very hard.
-	She	Did	not	go	with me.
	We	Did	not	work	yesterday.
?	Did	You		go	to London?
	Did	They		work	at home?

Exception! The verb to be is different. We conjugate the verb to be (I was, you were, he/she/it was, we were, they were); and we do not use an auxiliary for negative and question sentences. To make a question, we exchange the subject and verb. Look at these examples:

	subject	main verb
+	I, he/she/it	Was		here.
	You, we, they	Were		in London.
-	I, he/she/it	Was	not	there.
	You, we, they	Were	not	happy.
?	Was	I, he/she/it		right?
	Were	you, we, they		late?

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