Past Simple
Simple Past Tense is another essential tense in English since it is
frequently used by the English speakers on daily basis. Simple past is used to
talk about the action that happened and finished at a specific time in the past.
And it is formed by using the subject with the past tense of the verb. (Sub +
V-ed + ……..). Now let’s explore the forms, usages, examples, and spelling
rules.
Forms
Positive: Sub + V-ed + ……….
Ex. I went to bed at 9 last night.
Negative: Sub + didn’t + base verb + ……
Ex. She didn’t call me yesterday.
Yes/No: Did + sub + base verb…………?
Short answers
Yes, sub + did.
No, sub + didn’t.
- Did you play any game this morning? Yes, I did.
- Information question/wh-question
- Wh-word + did + sub + base verb ….?
- What did you do yesterday?
Usage
Simple Past Tense is basically used to talk about action or situation
that happened and finished at a specific time in the past. Frequently used past time
expressions are last night, last week, yesterday, this morning, in 2000, 5
years ago, when I was young…etc.
- I did my homework before I went to bed last night.
- He lived in the countryside in 2005.
- Our teacher didn’t come yesterday.
- Dinosaurs existed on planet earth millions of years ago.
- Did you sleep well last night?
- What time did you go to bed last night?
Spelling Rules
All verbs used in simple past must be in the past form. For regular
verbs, there are three important rules to follow when changing the verbs from
present to past tense. Let’s see as below.
Rule 1: Add –d to the verbs that end in –e.
- Love > loved
- Like > liked,
- Receive > received
- Hope > hoped
Rule 2: When a verb ends in consonant + y, change y to –ied.
- Study > studied
- Cry > cried
- Fry > fried
- Carry > carried
- Marry > married
Rule 3: Add –ed to the verbs that don’t follow rule 1 and 2.
- Start > started
- End > ended
- Stay > stayed
- Stop > stopped
Irregular verbs
Some verbs are irregular, so there are no rules at all. We have to learn
to memorize them gradually. Here are some of the frequently used irregular
verbs.
- Go _ went
- Buy _ bought
- Catch-caught
- Teach – taught
- Grow – grew
- See – saw
- Write – wrote
- Ride – rode
- Fight – fought
- Feel – felt
- Lose – lost
- Bring – brought
- Find – found
- Know – knew
- Give – gave
- Draw – drew
- Fly – flew
- Swim – swam
- Make – made
- Take – took
- Choose – chose
- Steal – stole
- Begin – began
- Fall – fell
- Throw – threw
- Cut – cut
- Read – read
- Drink – drank
- Run – ran
- Ago : 5 hours ago, 1000 years ago, a moment ago
- Year : in 2000, 1995, 1987
- Yesterday
- This morning
- This afternoon
- Dinosaurs existed around six million years ago.
- Last week, they went on a trip with their friends.
- She lived in the countryside in 2000.
- It rained heavily yesterday evening.
- I got up late this morning.
- end - ended
- start - started
- offend - offended
- need - needed
- p : stop - stopped
- k : kick - kicked
- sh : finish - finished
- ch : watch - watched
- gh : laugh - laughed
- th : breath - breathed
- ss : kiss - kissed
- c: dance - danced
- x: fix - fixed
- l : travel - travelled
- n : ban - banned
- r : offer - offered
- g : belong - belonged
- v : believe - believed
- s : use - used
- w : borrow - borrowed
- y : stay - stayed
- z : amaze - amazed
A. Complete the following sentences with the correction form of simple past tense.
1. She _________ (walk) to the park yesterday.
2.They _________( not/ play) football last weekend.
3. He _________(study) for the exam all night.
4. I _________(visit) my grandparents last summer.
5._________ ( you/ watch) a movie last week?
6. _________ (you/ clean) your room yesterday?
7. She _________ (stay) at home on Sunday last week.
8.They _________ (go) on vacation to other countries last year.
9. He _________ (meet) his old fried at a pat last night.
10. He _________(fix) the broken chair.
