SIMPLE PAST TENSE
DEFINITION
Simple past tense is a form of tense that states an action completed at a
certain time in the past. In simple past tense, time information is usually
referred to or written specifically (example: yesterday, two days ago,
last week, etc.)
The simple past is the basic form of past
tense in English. The time of the action
can be in the recent past or the distant
past and action duration is not
important.
EXAMPLES :
• John Cabot sailed to America in 1498.
• My father died last year.
• He lived in Fiji in 1976.
• We crossed the Channel yesterday.
You always use the simple past when you say when something
happened, so it is associated with certain past time expressions
• frequency: often, sometimes, always
I sometimes walked home at lunchtime.
I often brought my lunch to school.
• a definite point in time: last week, when I was a child,
yesterday, six weeks ago
We saw a good film last week.
Yesterday, I arrived in Geneva.
She finished her work atseven o'clock
I went to the theatre last night
• an indefinite point in time: the other day, ages ago, a
long time ago
People lived in caves a long time ago.
She played the piano when she was a child.
FORMING THE SIMPLE PAST TENSE
PATTERNS OF SIMPLE PAST TENSE FOR REGULAR VERBS
“WALK”
Affirmative Negative Interrogative
I walked I didn't walk Did I walk?
You walked You didn't walk Did you walk?
He walked He didn't walk Did he walk?
We walked We didn't walk Did we walk?
They walked They didn’t walk Did they walk?
SIMPLE PAST TENSE OF TO BE, TO HAVE, TO DO
NOTES ON AFFIRMATIVE, NEGATIVE,
& INTERROGATIVE FORMS
NEGATIVE AND INTERROGATIVE
AFFIRMATIVE
The affirmative of the simple
past tense is simple.
For the negative and interrogative simple
past form of "to do" as an ordinary verb,
• I was in Japan last year use the auxiliary "did", e.g. We didn't
• She had a headache do our homework last night.
The negative of "have" in the simple past
yesterday. is usually formed using the auxiliary "did",
• We did our homework last but sometimes by simply adding not or
the contraction "n't".
night.
The interrogative form of "have" in the
simple past normally uses the
auxiliary "did".
• They weren't in Rio last summer.
• We didn't have any money.
• We didn't have time to visit the Eiffel Tower.
• We didn't do our exercises this morning.
• Were they in Iceland last January?
• Did you have a bicycle when you were young?
• Did you do much climbing in Switzerland?
SIMPLE PAST, IRREGULAR VERBS
1. TO GO
• He went to a club last night.
• Did he go to the cinema last night?
• He didn't go to bed early last night.
2. TO GIVE
• We gave her a doll for her birthday.
• They didn't give John their new address.
• Did Barry give you my passport?
3. TO COME
• My parents came to visit me last July.
• We didn't come because it was raining.
• Did he come to your party last week?
