Past Simple for beginners
Past simple tense is one of the most exciting and important tenses in English. We often use it to talk about what happened before.
What Is Past Simple Tense?
The past simple tense is used to talk about an action that is complete. It indicates actions or states of being in the past.
Structure
To form the simple past tense, you have to use the past tense form of the verb.
Regular Verbs
Irregular Verbs
Irregular verbs do not follow the rule mentioned above. These verbs have a different spelling in the past tense form. For example:
- go → went
- bring → brought
- know → knew
Spelling
If the verb is regular and has one syllable, with a single vowel followed by a consonant, double the final consonant when adding -ed to make the past simple:
- beg → be
gg ed - skip → ski
pp ed
Negation
For negation, add did not or the short form didn't before the base form of the verb:
Affirmative | Negative |
---|---|
I ran. |
I |
She walked. |
She |
Questions
For making questions, all you need to do is to change the place of subject and base form of the verb and use 'Did' at the beginning of the sentence:
Statement | Questions |
---|---|
I ran. |
|
She walked. |
|
Uses
The past simple tense is used to talk about:
- completed actions
I
Mary
Pronunciation of -ed
'-ed' endings have three different pronunciations:
- /d/: after all vowel sounds and voiced consonants (except /d/)
- /t/: after all voiceless consonants (except /t/)
- /ɪd/: after /d/ and /t/