When to use Simple Past
Simple Past is used for finished actions in the past. The focus is on the action itself, not on its present consequences. Simple Past is often used to describe a series of events or to tell stories. For example, when describing what you did during a day in the past.
- For habits or repeated, regular events
The bus came at 7 am every morning.
Sometimes I went to the park during lunch break.
They often trained together before races. - Past event that happened at a given point in time
I went to bed at 12 pm last night.
She was born in 2000.
What time did your flight leave on Wednesday? - Past event with an indefinite point in time
She was my best friend.
I bought this watch a long time ago.
I bumped into my high school sweetheart the other day.
Structure of Simple Past Tense
Subject + Simple Past form of the verb + Object
She studied medicine.
The Simple Past Tense has the simplest past structures. In an affirmative sentence, there is no auxiliary verb. The action verb needs to be used in past participle. The past participle of the verb is created the following way:
Regular verbs
To create the past tense form of regular verbs, simply add -ed to the end of the verb.
want → wanted → I wanted to help you.
shift → shifted → The real power shifted to the advisor.
cook → cooked → Mom cooked a delicious meal.
wait → waited → Cinderella waited for a long time for his prince.
play → played → My best friend played tennis in high school.
bake → baked → I baked a chocolate cake last weekend.
add → added → The teacher added some extra slides to the presentation.
stay → stayed → My roommate stayed up late last night.
jump → jumped → The nighbour’s goats jumped over the fence.
look → looked → You looked wonderful in that dress.
enjoy → enjoyed → They enjoyed a night out together.
push → pushed → Tom pushed the wrong button.
walk → walked → Grandpa always walked around in the garden.
Spelling changes
However, there are some exceptions in spelling regular verbs ending in -ed. The spelling rules follow the same logic as the spelling of the progressive participle.
- Verbs ending in -e only get a -d.
live → lived
vote → voted
love → loved
create → created - Double the final letter if the verb ends in consonant + vowel + consonant.
stop → stopped
plan → planned
drop → dropped
fit → fitted - Don’t double the last consonant if the stress is on the first syllable even though the verb ends in consonant + vowel + consonant.
happen → happened
offer → offered
enter → entered - Don’t double the last consonant if the verb ends in -w, -x, -y or when the last syllable is not stressed.
follow → followed
enjoy → enjoyed
fix → fixed
Some examples:
We happened to be there at the same time.
My dad fixed my bike yesterday.
Liam dropped out of school a long time ago.
I never finished high school.
Irregular verbs
There are many common words that have irregular second and third forms that don’t end in -ed. For example,
go → went → gone
do → did → done
make → made → made
get → got → got
You can find an extensive list of the most frequently used irregular verbs here. The sooner you start learning them, the sooner you’ll finish!
Note that there is no conjugation in 3rd person singular in past tense except for the verb ‘to be’:
I was You were
He / she / it was
We were
You were
They were
Take a look at where Simple Past is in the Verb Tenses Table:
Simple Past Negative
In the English language, negative forms of verbs are usually formed by an auxiliary verb and ‘not’. For example: She may not go out tonight. In the Simple Past Tense, the verb ‘do’ serves as an auxiliary verb to help the formation of negative and questions. The auxiliary verb, however, needs to be in second form, so the correct forms will be ‘did’ and ‘didn’t’. ‘Did’ here has no special meaning, it serves only grammatical purposes. The action verb follows the auxiliary verb which can stay in first form because the auxiliary verb already expresses the past tense. The negative of Simple Past is formed as follows:
S + did + not + bare infinitive + O
Remember to use the short version in everyday language by combing ‘did’ and ‘not’ to ‘didn’t’ and the long version ‘did not’ in a formal written context.
Examples:
I didn’t want to hang out with them last night.
She didn’t finish her paper until the deadline.
We didn’t go to the beach yesterday.
Yes/No questions in Simple Past
In the English language, questions are usually formed by switching the (first) auxiliary verb and the subject. To form questions the auxiliary verb ‘to do’ in past tense ‘did’ is used. Similarly to Simple Past Negative, the action verb stays in first form. For example:
I really liked the supper last night. → Did you like the supper last night?
They went to the nearest coffee shop. → Did they go to the nearest coffee shop?
My friend didn’t come with me to the handball game. → Did your friend come with you to the handball game?
Open-ended questions in Simple Past
To form open-ended questions, simply put the question word to the beginning of the sentence. The word order folowing the question word remains tha same as in case of yes/no questions. For example:
What did you have for supper last night?
Where did they go?
Why didn’t you friend come with you?
Typical adverbs of Simple Past
Yesterday, last night / week / year, at (2) o’clock, at (5) pm, once / twice…, … days / hours / weeks / years ago, for … hours, for a long time, a long time ago, ages ago
For example:
Yesterday I woke up at 7 am. I got out of bed and made myself a cup of coffee. I took a shower before starting to work. I worked for 3 hours and then met my friend for coffee at 11 o’clock. I invited her to come to my dinner party when she told me she didn’t have any plans for the evening. We had a great time last night.
Expressing habits in the past with ‘used to’ and ‘would’
There are two expressions used for expressing repeated actions in the past that are not tenses. In some special cases, these expressions describe the intention of the speaker more clearly than any of the past tenses. These expressions are ‘used to’ and ‘would’.
Let’s take a look at ‘used to’ first:
‘Used to’ expressed a repeated event, a habit or a state of something in the past. It describes an event or state that happened in the past but have already finished. It is frequently used for describing general past states, not specific events. Whereas Past Simple refers to a specific event with a given point in time, ‘used to’ refers to actions that regularly happened in the past.
The structure of the expression follows the same logic as the structure of Simple Past. In an affirmative sentence, ‘used to’ is followed by the bare infinitive of the action verb. In negative sentences and questions, the auxiliary verb ‘did’ helps to form the structure. As ‘did’ already expresses past tense, the -d at the end of ‘used to’ must be dropped.
Affirmative structure of ‘used to’: S + ‘used to’ + bare infinitive
Negative structure of ‘used to’: S + ‘didn’t use to’ + bare infinitive
Making questions with ‘used to’: Did + S + ‘use to’ + bare infinitive ?
For example:
I used to smoke, but I quit last week.
She used to be my best friend, but she got mad at me when I forgot about her birthday.
There used to be a lot more parks in this city.
Did you use to listen to this band in your teens?
I didn’t use to go on field trips with the class.
Expressing regular event and action in the past using ‘would’
‘Would’ is used for expressing regular actions in the past or typical event for a time period in the past. The main difference between ‘would’ and ‘used to’ is that you cannot use ‘would’ for describing states. Use ‘would’ for talking about actions and things that people can do. For example,
My grandma would be a teacher when he was younger.
My grandma used to be a teacher when he was younger.
She would complain about the kids all the time. ✓
She used to complain about the kids all the time. ✓
The structure of expressing regular past events with ‘would’ is the same as if you were using ‘would’ as a modal verb:
Affirmative: S + ‘would’ + bare infinitive
Negative: S + ‘wouldn’t / would not’ + bare infinitive
Questions: Would + S + bare infinitive ?
English Verb Tenses 