Simple Past Tense
Besides, Present Simple Tense, Simple Past Tense is another important tense of English that you have to master in order to become an advanced English user.
1/ Definition and how to use:
The simple past tense is used to describe completed actions in a time before now. The time of the action can be in the recent past or the distant past, and action duration is not important. The simple past tense is also used to emphasize that the action is completely finished in the past.
Example: He won the silver medal.
Example: The contest was the highlight of his week.
2/ Forms of verbs:
a. Affirmative form:
For regular verbs, add -ed to the root form of the verb (or just -d if the root form already ends in an e):
Example:
- Play→Played
- Type→Typed
- Listen→Listened
- Push→Pushed
- Love→Loved
For irregular verbs, things get more complicated. The simple past tense of some irregular verbs looks exactly like the root form.
Example:
- Put→Put
- Cut→Cut
- Set→Set
- Cost→Cost
- Hit→Hit
For other irregular verbs, including the verb to be, the simple past forms are more erratic:
Example:
- See→Saw
- Build→Built
- Go→Went
- Do→Did
- Rise→Rose
- Am/Is/Are→Was/Were
Note: In the simple past tense (except for the verb to be), verbs don’t need to agree in number with their subjects. It only needs to follow the verb forms.
Example: Wolfgang polished his medal. The other winners polished their medals too.
b. Negative form:
This form is much easier and simpler than the affirmative one. For both regular and irregular verbs (except for the verb to be), the formula is: “ did not + (root form of the verb)”.
Example: She did not go to school.= She didn’t go to school.
For the verb to be, you don’t need the auxiliary did. When the subject of the sentence is singular, use was not or wasn’t. When the subject is plural, use were not or weren’t.
Example:
- He was not there.
- They were not the winners.
c. Interrogative form:
For both regular and irregular verbs (except for the verb to be), the formula is: “did + [subject] + [root form of verb]?”.
Example:
- Did you do the homework?
- Did they go outside?
- Did she fall asleep?
When asking a question with the verb to be, the formula is “was/were + [subject]?”
Example:
- Was he there?
- Were they the teachers?
LAST REMARKS:
In order to master this tense, you need to learn by heart the following common regular and irregular verbs:
