The past simple

Overview

The past simple is used to talk about completed actions that happened at fixed time in the past.It is the most commonly used past tense in English.

How to form

Subject	past verb	rest of sentence
I/You/He/She/We/They	played	tennis yesterday.

present participle spelling rules

wash	dance	try	stop
	last letter is an e	last letters are a consonant and a y	last letters are consonant-vowel-consonant and final syllable is stressed.
Add ed to form regular present participles	just a d is added	The y is removed and ied is added instead	The last consonant is doubled and ed is added.
washed	danced	tried	stopped

Irregular verbs in the past simple

go	have	do	put	come	see	buy
went	had	did	put	came	saw	bought

more

Be in the past simple

subject + was/were + rest of sentence

the past simple negative

the past simple negative uses did not or didn't with the base form of the main verb. The main verb is not put into the past simple.

subject didn't go swimming.

the past simple negaive of be

To form the past simple negative of be, not is added after was or were.

The book was interesting,but the movie was not.

past simple question

Questions in the past simple are used did.For past simple questions with be, the subject and the verb (was,were) are swapped around.

eg:

• They bought a new car -> Did they buy a new car?
• She visited her parents last week -> Who did she visit last week ?
• She was excited. -> Was she excited ?