Past Simple

Level: beginner

With most verbs, the past tense is formed by adding –ed:

called

liked

wanted

worked

But there are a lot of irregulars past tense forms in English. Here are the most common irregular verbs in English, with their past tense forms:

Irregular verbs list PDF

We use the past tense to talk about:

• something that happened once in the past:

I met my wife in 1983.
We went to Spain for our holidays.
They got home very late last night.

• something that happened several times in the past:

When I was a boy, I walked a mile to school every day.
We swam a lot while we were on holiday.
They always enjoyed visiting their friends.

• something that was true for some time in the past:

I lived abroad for ten years.
He enjoyed being a student.
She played a lot of tennis when she was younger.

• we often use expressions with ago with the past simple:

I met my wife a long time ago.

 

We use didn't (did not) to make negatives with the past simple:

They didn't go to Spain this year.
We didn't get home until very late last night.
I didn't see you yesterday. 

To talk about past actions that finished at a specific time. As you can see in the following examples:

- I went to Mexico last month.

- They ate the whole cake.

- She saw him last night.

To talk about past habits and states. As you can see in the following examples:

- I took many photographs when I was in high school.

- He was a painter.

- Stephanie was in a band when she was younger.

To talk about past actions that happened one after the other. As you can see in the following examples:

- Julia went to the bathroom and brushed her teeth.

- Frank grabbed his coat and went out.

- I called Nicole and congratulated her.

In the following table, you will find information about the structure of the simple past tense and positive, negative and interrogative sentences.