SIMPLE PAST TENSE

DEFINITION OF THE SIMPLE PAST TENSE

The simple past tense, sometimes called the preterite, is used to talk about a completed action in a time before now.
The simple past is the basic form of past tense in English. The time of the action can be in the recent past or the distant
past and action duration is not important.

EXAMPLES

 John Cabot sailed to America in 1498.

 My father died last year.
 He lived in Fiji in 1976.
 We crossed the Channel yesterday.
You always use the simple past when you say when something happened, so it is associated with certain past time
expressions

 frequency: often, sometimes, always

I sometimes walked home at lunchtime.
I often brought my lunch to school.
 a definite point in time: last week, when I was a child, yesterday, six weeks ago
We saw a good film last week.
Yesterday, I arrived in Geneva.
She finished her work atseven o'clock
I went to the theatre last night
 an indefinite point in time: the other day, ages ago, a long time ago  People lived in caves a long time ago.
 She played the piano when she was a child.
Note: the word ago is a useful way of expressing the distance into the past. It is placed after the period of time: a week
ago, three years ago, a minute ago.
Be Careful: The simple past in English may look like a tense in your own language, but the meaning may be different.

FORMING THE SIMPLE PAST TENSE

PATTERNS OF SIMPLE PAST TENSE FOR REGULAR VERBS

Affirmative

Subject + verb + ed  

I skipped.  

Negative

Subject + did not + infinitive without to

They didn't go.

Interrogative

Did + subject + infinitive without to

Did she arrive?

Interrogative negative

Did not + subject + infinitive without to

Didn't you play?

TO WALK
Affirmative Negative Interrogative

I walked I didn't walk Did I walk?

You walked You didn't walk Did you walk?

He walked He didn't walk Did he walk?

We walked We didn't walk Did we walk?

They walked They didn't walk Did they walk?

SIMPLE PAST TENSE OF TO BE, TO HAVE, TO DO

Subject Verb

  Be Have D

I was had d

You were had d

He/She/It was had d

We were had d

You were had d

They were had d

NOTES ON AFFIRMATIVE, NEGATIVE, & INTERROGATIVE FORMS

AFFIRMATIVE
The affirmative of the simple past tense is simple.

 I was in Japan last year

 She had a headache yesterday.
 We did our homework last night.

NEGATIVE AND INTERROGATIVE

For the negative and interrogative simple past form of "do" as an ordinary verb, use the auxiliary "do", e.g. We didn't
do our homework last night.
The negative of "have" in the simple past is usually formed using the auxiliary "do", but sometimes by simply
adding not or the contraction "n't".
The interrogative form of "have" in the simple past normally uses the auxiliary "do".

EXAMPLES

 They weren't in Rio last summer.

 We didn't have any money.
 We didn't have time to visit the Eiffel Tower.
 We didn't do our exercises this morning.
 Were they in Iceland last January?
 Did you have a bicycle when you were young?
 Did you do much climbing in Switzerland?
 Note: For the negative and interrogative form of all verbs in the simple past, always use the auxiliary 'did''.

SIMPLE PAST, IRREGULAR VERBS

Some verbs are irregular in the simple past. Here are the most common ones.

TO GO

 He went to a club last night.

 Did he go to the cinema last night?
 He didn't go to bed early last night.

TO GIVE

 We gave her a doll for her birthday.

 They didn't give John their new address.
 Did Barry give you my passport?

TO COME

 My parents came to visit me last July.

 We didn't come because it was raining.
 Did he come to your party last week?
Simple past of regular verbs

The simple past is used to describe an action that occurred and was completed in the past. The simple past is formed by
Read lesson
adding –ed to the base form of the verb (the infinitive without to).
 * en
+ ed 
español 
=
 * en
français simple
past
base
form

walk walked

push pushed

greet greeted

watch watched
 In English, the simple past of regular verbs is extremely easy. It is the same for all persons. Here are example sentences
of the simple past with the verb WORK.
  singular   plural

1st per I worke yesterday. We worke yesterday.

d d

2nd You worke yesterday. You worke yesterday.

per d d

3rd per He, She, It worke yesterday. They worke yesterday.

d d

There are several irregularities regarding orthography (spelling) for the simple past ending of regular verbs. Similarly,
there are different ways to pronounce this ending. See the lesson on pronunciation of the Simple Past – ed ending to
learn more.
For regular verbs ending in the vowel -e, add –d.
base simple
form past

hate hated

seize seized

hope   hoped

assum
assumed
e

tie tied

free freed

For the very few English verbs that end in a vowel other than -e, add –ed.
base
simple
for
past
m
 
ski skied

echo echoed

Exceptions: The verbs DO and GO are irregular: See below.

For regular verbs that end in a vowel+y, add –ed.

base simple
form past

play played

decay   decayed

surve
surveyed
y

enjoy enjoyed
Exceptions: The verbs SAY and BUY are irregular: See below.

For regular verbs that end in a consonant +y, change the –y to –i and add –ed.

base simple
form past

cry   cried
dirty dirtied

magnify magnified

Exception: The verb FLY is irregular: See below.

For regular verbs ending in a consonant + vowel + consonant, double the final consonant before adding -ed.
base   simple
for past
m
dam dammed

beg begged

plan planned

strip stripped

In American English, when the regular verb has more than one syllable and the syllable stress is on the final syllable, the
final consonant is doubled.
base   simple   incorrect
form past

defer deferred defered

regret regretted regreted

reship reshipped reshiped

compe compelle compeled

l d

In these verbs, the syllable stress is not on the final syllable so the consonant is not doubled.
base   simple   incorrect
form past

orbit orbited orbitted

listen listened listenned

travel traveled travelled

conside considere considerred

r d

Here are examples with regular verbs in the simple present and the simple past.
simple present simple past

I walk to school. I walked to school.

She works downtown.   She worked downtown.

They help on Tuesday. They helped on Tuesday.

He asks a lot of questions. He asked a lot of questions.

Irregular verbs form the past tense by a change in orthography (spelling).

base   simple
form past

buy bought

do did

fly flew

forget forgot

light lit
go went

say said

Spelling of the -ed forms

The spelling of the simple past form (-ed forms)

You will learn the spelling of the simple past form (-ed form.) But before you continue the lesson study the following
examples and try to see how the verbs are spelled.
Verbs ending in a...
1. silent e 2. vowel + y 3. consonant + y 4. other forms
close = closed  marry = married  visit = visited 
die = died  play = played  carry = carried  miss = missed
phone = phoned  destroy = destroyed  study = studied watch = watched 
show = showed  finish = finished 
fix = fixed 
buzz = buzzed
The rules of the simple past tense forms:

Here are the rules:

1. Regular verbs ending in a silent e take /-d/ in the simple past and past participle: 
Example:
close=closed
2. Regular verbs ending in a vowel + y take /-ed/ in the simple past and past participle:
Example:
play=played
3. Regular verbs ending in a consonant + y take /-ied/ in the simple past and past participle (the y becomes
an i followed by /-ed/)
Example:
marry=married
4. All the other regular vebs take /-ed/ in the simple past and past participle.
Example:
visit=visited
Special cases of the -ed forms:

Follow these rules when there is a consonant after a vowel (stop, ban, open, offer...)

 If there is a consonant after a stressed vowel at the end of the word, double the consonant
stop – stopped
ban - banned 
swap - swapped
  If the vowel is not stressed, we do not double it:
open - opened (Here the stress is on'o', not the 'e'.)
offer - offered ( Here the stress is on 'o', not the 'e'.)

In British English we double the last l even though the last vowel is not stressed. Here are some examples:

 travel - travelled
 cancel - cancelled
 level - levelled
 marvel – marveled

Simple Past: Regular Verbs

Introduction

The simple past tense is one of the most common tenses in English. Its form is the same with all subjects. It is usually
formed by adding -ED to the verb. This page will explain the rules for forming the tense with regular verbs.
1. Forming the simple past tense

With most verbs, the simple past is created simply by adding -ED. However, with some verbs, you need to add -D or
change the ending a little. Here are the rules:

Verb ending in... How to make the simple past Examples

live   lived
e Add -D
date   dated

try   tried
Consonant +y Change y to i, then add -ED
cry   cried

One vowel + one

tap   tapped
consonant Double the consonant, then add -ED
commit   committed
(but NOT w or y)

boil   boiled
fill   filled
anything else including w Add -ED
hand   handed
show   showed

When you are sure that you understand the lesson, you can continue with the exercises.
The past simple – regular verbs

The past simple is the most common way of talking about past events or states which have finished. It is
often used with past time references (e.g. yesterday, two years ago).

Please explain past events or states!

A past event could be one thing that happened in the past, or a repeated thing.

I stopped  at a zebra crossing.

We  carried on with the test.
We  played tennis every day in August.
A state is a situation without an action happening.

We  stayed at my grandparents' house last summer.

How do you form the past simple?

Regular past simple forms are formed by adding -ed to the infinitive of the verb.

start  → started
kill  →  killed
jump  → jumped

That seems easy!  

Yes, but there are some spelling rules. If a verb ends in -e, you add -d.

agree  → agreed
like  → liked
escape  → escaped

If a verb ends in a vowel and a consonant, the consonant is usually doubled before - ed.

stop  →  stopped
plan  →  planned

If a verb ends in consonant and -y, you take off the y and add -ied.

try  →  tried
carry  →  carried          

But if the word ends in a vowel and -y, you add -ed.

play  →  played
enjoy  → enjoyed

OK, not quite so easy! But the past simple form doesn't change at all for I, you, he, she, we and they, does it?

No, the form doesn't change. See, it is easy!

What about the pronunciation of the -ed ending?

There are three kinds of pronunciation: /d/, /t/ and /ɪd/. Look at the table below.

/d/ /t/ /ɪd/

arrived asked wanted

failed crossed decided

agreed stopped started

Aaagh! How do I know how to pronounce each one?

Good question. Well, really all you need to know is that /d/ is easier to say after arrive, and /t/ is easier to say after ask.
For /ɪd/, the infinitive ends in a /d/ or a /t/ sound already so you must add an extra syllable for these verbs.
All right, that makes sense, but how do you form questions and negatives?

With the verb did (do  in the past) +  the infinitive.

Did  you pass?

You didn't fail, did you?
Yes, I  did.  / No, I  didn't.

Right, thanks, I've got it now!

Good. But you also need to learn the irregular past simple forms.

You mean there are verbs that don't end in -ed in the past?

Yes, they don't all end in -ed. Have a look at the past simple irregular verbs too.

Spelling of verbs in the Simple Past

How to spell regular and irregular verbs in the Simple Past

You have to know all forms of irregular verbs very well. For the Simple Past you need the form of the verb which can be
found in the 2nd column of the table of irregular verbs.

go → went → gone

Add -ed with regular verbs:

regular verbs → infinitive + -ed

Sometimes the are exceptions in spelling when adding -ed:

1. Adding -ed

1.1. consonant after a short, stressed vowel at the end of the word

Double the consonant.

stop – stopped
swap – swapped

We do not double the consonant if the vowel is not stressed:

benefit – benefited (Here we stress the first e, not the i.)

In Britsh English we double one -l at the end of the word:

travel – travelled

1.2. one -e at the end of the word

Only add -d.
love – loved
save – saved
1.3. verbs ending in -y

Change -y to -i after a consonant. Then add -ed.

worry – worried

Add -ed with verbs ending in -y preceded by a vowel (a, e, i, o, u): 

play – played

How to Pronounce -ed

The past simple tense and past participle of all regular verbs end in -ed. For example:
work, worked, worked

In addition, many adjectives are made from the past participle and so end in -ed. For example:
I like painted furniture.

The question is, how do we pronounce the -ed? The answer is, in 3 ways:

 /ɪd/
 /t/
 /d/

If the base verb ends in one of example base example pronounce the - extra
these sounds verb* with -ed ed as syllable?

/t/ want wanted /ɪd/ yes

/d/ end ended

unvoiced /p/ hope hoped /t/ no

/f/ laugh laughed

/s/ fax faxed

/ʃ/ wash washed

/ʧ/ watch watched

/k/ like liked

 If the base verb ends in one of example base example pronounce the - extra
these sounds verb* with -ed ed as syllable?

voiced all other sounds, eg play played /d/

allow allowed

beg begged

*Note that it is the sound that is important, not the letter or spelling. For example, fax ends in the letter x but the
sound /s/; like ends in the letter e but the sound /k/.

Exceptions

The following -ed words used as adjectives are pronounced with /ɪd/:

 aged
 dogged
 ragged
 blessed
 learned
 wicked
 crooked
 naked
 wretched

So we say:

 an aged man /ɪd/
 a blessed nuisance /ɪd/
 a dogged persistence /ɪd/
 a learned professor - the professor, who was truly learned /ɪd/
 a wretched beggar - the beggar was wretched /ɪd/

But when used as real verbs (past simple and past participle), the normal rules apply and we say:

 he aged quickly /d/
 he blessed me /t/
 they dogged him /d/
 he has learned well /d/ or /t/