We use the simple past for:
We use the simple past tense for finished actions in the past. The time period is over and there is no connection with now.
Sometimes we use the simple past tense for finished actions and do not mention the time:
Sometimes we use the simple past tense for finished actions and mention the time:
We usually use the simple past tense with past time expressions in the sentences. The time expressions we usually use with the simple past tense are:yesterday,last(last week/year/month), ago (two days ago, five minutes ago,etc.)
Let's see some examples:
Sometimes when we talk about past events, we need to talk about a series of actions that happened one after another, not only one action. In this situation we use the simple past tense.
We use the simple past tense to describe past states or to talk about our state of mind.
A past state is a situation that describes a moment, a time, a thing, a place, a health condition, etc, in the past.
Your state of mind is your emotional state, your mood, like happy, sad, scared,etc.
We usually use the simple past tense with the present perfect tense to give details about the events, to provide more information of what happened in the past.
We tell about the event for the first time using the present perfect tense and then we go on with the simple past tense to talk about the details.
We use the past form (second form) of the verbs with the Simple Past Tense in positive sentences.
There are two different types of verbs in the Simple Past:regular and irregular. We form regular verbs by adding an -ed (or -d, -ied) at the end of the verb. For irregular verbs there is norule that we can follow. We need to have a look at the irregular verbs list and use them in sentences to learn.
The verb in the base form is go, we use the past form of the verb go. Go is an irregular verb and its past form is went.
Click here to see the irregular verbs list.
We use the Simple Past of the verb after all the different subject pronouns I, you, we, they,he ,she, it to make positive sentences in the Simple Past Tense.
I went to the cinema last night.
You went to the cinema last night.
He went to the cinema last night.
She went to the cinema last night.
We went to the cinema last night.
You went to the cinema last night.
They went to the cinema last night.
We use did + not + base form of the verb to form negative sentences in the Simple Past Tense.
I did not go the the cinema last night.
You did not go to the cinema last night.
He/she/it did not go to the cinema last night.
We/you/they did not go to the cinema last night.
We use did + not to make negative sentences in the Simple Past but we usually use the short form of did not and use didn't before the verb.
I didn't go to the cinema last night.
You didn't go to the cinema last night.
He/she/it didn't go to the cinema last night.
We/you/they didn't go to the cinema last night.
We use Did + subject pronoun + base form of the verb to make questions in the Simple Past.
Did I tell you the news about Tyler?
Did they move to London?
Did you iron my shirt?
Did he go to the gym yesterday?
If the answer is positive: Yes, I did. / Yes, you did. / Yes, she did.,etc.
If the answer is negative: No, I didn't. / No, he didn't. / No, we didn't.,etc.
We use the question words,who,what,why,when,where,how at the beginning of the question.
What did you do outside?
What time did you wake up?
When did she come?
Where did they go for holiday?
How did we make such a big mistake?
Click here to try an exercise to practice the simple past tense positive sentences.
Click here to try an exercise to practice forming questions in the simple past tense.