English Grammar and Exercises / Verbs tenses / Simple Past Tense - Form

Simple Past Tense - Form

How to use the Simple Past Tense   |   ​Click here for Simple Past Tense Exercises

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THE FORMS OF SIMPLE PAST TENSE
Affirmative: [VERB + ed] or IRREGULAR VERB
Examples:

• I played football yesterday. (regular verb)
• Leonardo da Vinci lived from 1452 to 1519. (regular verb)
• She bought some fruits last night. (irregular verb)
• They saw him in the park. (irregular verb)

Negative: did not + [VERB]
Examples:

• I did not wash the dishes.
• You did not play the piano.
• She didn’t sleep well last night.
• Sharon didn’t put the book on the table.

Negative contraction:

• did not = didn’t

Interrogative: Did + SUBJECT + [VERB] 
Examples:

• Did you have your breakfast? Yes, I did / No I didn’t.
• Did she work yesterday? Yes, she did / No, she didn't.

 
You can add a question word (what, where, when, etc.) before did to ask for more information.
Examples:

• What did you do the last weekend? I studied Science.
• Where did she go? She went to the school.
• When did you play baseball? I played baseball last night.
• Why didn’t you tell me about the accident?
• How did you do that?

NOTE: The auxiliary did is used to form the negative and interrogative forms.
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Spelling rules for [VERB + ed]
Here are the spelling rules:

Most regular verbs Add -ed	clean - cleaned need – needed talk - talked wash - washed
Regular verbs ending in: “-e” Add –d	care - cared die - died love – loved like – liked live - lived
Regular verbs endings in: consonant + y Change y to i + -ed	carry – carried cry - cried hurry – hurried study – studied
Regular verbs endings in: vowel + y Do not change y, just add -ed	pray – prayed stay – stayed destroy - destroyed but pay-paid, lay-laid, say-said.
One-syllable regular verbs endings in:  consonant + vowel + consonant Double final consonant + -ed	drop - dropped plan – planned stop – stopped   Do not double one-syllable regular verbs endings in: -w, -x or -y snow – snowed mix - mixed play – played
Two or more syllables regular verbs endings in:  consonant + vowel + consonant Double final consonant + -ed (only if the last syllable is stressed)	admit – admitted prefer – preferred   travel – travelled(UK) traveled (US) marvel – marvelled(UK) marveled (US)   Do not double if the last syllable is not stressed happen – happened offer - offered suffer - suffered visit - visited

 

Irregular verbs
For irregular verbs, use the past form:

• eat -> ate
• go -> went
  
• see -> saw

Click here to learn about how to use the Simple Past Tense