Past Simple For beginners

In this lesson, beginners will learn about English Past Simple Tense with easy explanations, clear examples, and practice exercises.

"Past Simple" Tense in English Grammar

What Is Past Simple Tense?

The past simple tense is used to describe actions that happened and were completed in the past. It's often formed by adding '-ed' to the base form of regular verbs but has different forms for irregular verbs.

Structure

To form the simple past tense, the past tense form of the verb is used.

To form the past form of a regular verb, add '-ed' to the base form of the verb. For example:

walk → walked

play → played

talk → talked

If the verb already ends in '-e', just add '-d' to the base form of the verb. For example:

love → loved

free → freed

bake → baked

Spelling

If a regular verb with one syllable ends with a vowel + a consonant, double the last consonant before adding '-ed' to make it past tense. For example:

beg → begged

skip → skipped

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Irregular Verbs

Irregular verbs do not follow the rule mentioned above. These verbs have different forms in the past tense form. For example:

go → went

bring → brought

know → knew

run → ran

have → had

do → did

Past Tense of 'To Be'

'To be' is one of the irregular verbs in English which has two forms for the past tense:

subject

Verb

You/We/They

Were

I/He/She/It

Was

Example

I am a student. → I was a student.

They are kind. → They were kind.

Negation

For negation of past simple verbs, 'did not' or the short form 'didn't' is added before the base form of the verb:

Affirmative

Negative

Short Form

I ran.

I did not run.

I didn't run.

She walked.

She did not walk.

She didn't walk.

They talked.

They did not talk.

They didn't talk.

To negate a 'to be' verb, just add 'not' after its past form (was/were).

Statement

Negation

Short Form

I was happy.

I was not happy.

I wasn't happy.

They were waiters.

They were not waiters.

They weren't waiters.

Questions

To form questions using the past simple form, just use 'did' at the beginning of the sentence and change the past form of the verb to its base form:

Statement

Questions

I ran.

Did I run?

She walked.

Did she walk?

To from the simple past question form of a 'to be' verb, just put the verb at the beginning of the sentence and put the subject after it. For example:

Statement

Question

She was hungry.

Was she hungry?

They were at the mall.

Were they at the mall?

Uses

The past simple tense is used to talk about:

Completed actions in the past

Example

I had dinner at around 8 in the evening last night.

Mary graduated from college in 2013.

Pronunciation of '-ed'

'-ed' endings have three different pronunciations:

1.

/d/: After all vowel sounds and voiced consonants (except /d/) ⇒ walked

2.

/t/: After all voiceless consonants (except /t/) ⇒ pressed

3.

/ɪd/: After /d/ and /t/ ⇒ waited

Quiz:


1.

Which of the following sentences is in the past simple tense?

A

She walks to the store.

B

She walked to the store.

C

She walkked to the store.

D

She walkd to the store.

2.

Which verb is irregular in the past tense?

A

talk

B

beg

C

run

D

love

3.

Match the past tense formation rule with the correct verbs:

verbs that take "-ed"
verbs that take "-d"
verbs that double their last consonant and take "-ed"
irregular verbs
go, have, bring
beg, call, stop
wash, look, touch
live, love, die
4.

Complete the sentence with the correct past tense form of the verb in parentheses:

She

(play) soccer yesterday.

I

(go) to the market last Saturday.

We

(walk) to the park in the morning.

He

(beg) her to stay.

I

(bake) a cake for the party.

5.

Sort the words to form a correct negative sentence in the past simple tense.

soccer
.
yesterday
didn’t
play
she
6.

Complete the table by filling in the correct negative form.

StatementNegative

I ran.

I did not

.

She walked.

She did not

.

I was happy.

I

happy.

I called him.

I

him.

7.

Complete the table by filling in the correct question form.

StatementQuestion

I ran.

you

?

She walked.

she

?

I was happy.

you happy?

I called him.

you

him?

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