The Past Simple Tense

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„GAUDEAMUS“
THE PAST SIMPLE TENSE

(Report for English language class)
Mentor: Student:
Prof. Milica Labus Sanja Došen
Banjaluka, february 2023.

Past simple tense
Simple past tense is used to talk about actions and events that both started and ended in the
past.
You can describe the past in English in four different tenses. They are:
Past simple (also called preterite)
Past continuous
Past perfect
Past perfect continuous
The past simple tense is used to talk about things that both started and ended in the past. It is
one of the most commonly used tenses in English as it indicates something that has already
happened.
When to use the past simple tense

To talk about events that happened in the past — I walked to school yesterday.
To talk about moods or states of being in the past — I was a happy teenager.
To talk about repeated actions in the past — I visited my grandma every winter for ten years.
Pro tip – Past simple is only used when the action or event in the past was completed. If an
action started in the past but is continuing into the future that is a different tense (present
perfect).
How to construct the simple past tense
1.Regular verbs
Regular verbs always follow the same rules and so once you have understood how this rule
works, you can apply this to all regular verbs. The rule for simple past tense is very easy to
remember.
You just need to add -ed to the base form or infinitive verb, (or -d if the root form already ends
in an e). The infinitive or base form of the verb is how the verb appears in the dictionary, for
example, “walk.”
[ verb] + [ed] = regular past tense verb
For example:
To walk → walk + ed = walked
I walked into town
To paint → paint + ed = painted
I painted a picture
To love → love + d = loved
I loved my ex-wife
Additionally, verbs in the simple past do not change depending on the subject, they always stay
the same. For example:
I smile, she smiled, he smiled, you smiled, we smiled, they smiled.
2.Irregular verbs
Of course, there are some exceptions to the English grammar rules around simple
past. Irregular verbs, like “to be” for example, don’t follow a pattern or rule like regular
verbs and so just have to be memorized.
That might seem like a big task, but to learn English you only need to focus on the most
important ones. Here are fifty of the most common irregular verbs to get you started:
Infinitive verb Past simple verb
To be was (I/he/she) were (you/we/they)
To go went
To do did
To have had
To get got
To eat ate
To fall fell
To feel felt
To dream dreamt
To speak spoke
To give gave
To take took
To find found
To draw drew
Can could
To drink drank
To choose chose
To buy bought
To grow grew
To hear heard
To know knew
To make made
To pay paid
To read read (in the past tense, this word is pronounced “red”)
To let let
To meet met
To lose lost
To say said
To sell sold
To run ran
To shut shut
To sleep slept
To smell smelt
To sing sang
To tell told
To understand understood
To write wrote
To teach taught
To swim swam
To win won
To think thought
To sit sat
To send sent
To see saw
To keep kept
To leave left
To drive drove
To cut cut
To cost cost
To fly flew
Irregular verbs are used in sentences in the same way as regular ones. For example:
I flew to Spain in an airplane last week
You paid for our lunch yesterday
He won a prize for his poetry a few years ago
We sold our house recently
The doctor sent me home at midday.
How to use the past simple tense
You can use past simple with time expressions that refer to a point of time in the past, for
example, “earlier today”, “yesterday”, “last week”, “last month” or “last Tuesday”.
I married Steve last year
You can also use phrases that refer to an indefinite period of time in the past, often marked by
the word “ago”. For example, “a long time ago”, “a month ago”, “several years ago”.
The old lady died fifty years ago
Or phrases that suggest frequency, for things which happened multiple times in the past:
“often”, “sometimes”, “never”, “every”.
I often jogged home after work
Pronunciation
A quick note on pronunciation! Not all regular past tense verbs with “ed” at the end are
pronounced the same way. Most of the time, the “ed” is pronounced like a soft “d”.
Hoped
Placed
Closed
Sometimes, the ending of the word is pronounced like an “id” to rhyme with “lid”.
Painted
Corrected
Erected
Other times, the “ed” sounds more like the soft “t” sound, like at the end of “paint.”
Liked
Walked
Picked
How to form negative statements in the past simple tense

To make negative sentences in the past tense, add the auxiliary verb “did not” (can be
shortened to “didn’t”) before the present verb tense. “Did not” is the past tense of “do not.”
[Subject]+ [did not / didn’t] + [present tense verb form]
He did not come home for Christmas
I did not walk to work yesterday
We did not play football last Tuesday
Exceptions
There are only a few exceptions when forming negative statements in the simple past, but they
are important. The first is the verb “to be.” In the past tense, “to be” becomes “was” or “were”
depending on the subject.
Subject Verb (To be)
I Was
You Were
He/She/It Was
We Were
They Were
The negative of “was” is “was not” or “wasn’t” for short. The negative of “were” is “were not”
or “weren’t”. For example:
He was not too busy to help
I wasn’t ready to move on
You weren’t eating healthy food.
His parents (they) were not playing games
We weren’t going to school
The other exception is modal verbs. Modal verbs describe whether something is certain,
possible, or impossible: they are: “could,” “might,” “should,” and “would.”
To make a modal verb into a negative, you write the verb + “not”. For example:
Should not – shouldn’t
Could not – couldn’t
Would not – wouldn’t
Might not – mightn’t
Must not – mustn’t
Here are some examples of negative statements using modal verbs:
I could not remember his name
He should not worry too much
You mustn’t spend too much time watching TV
They wouldn’t eat my spicy curry
The literature used: Past Simple Tense in English: Explained with Examples (preply.com)

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Highschool center

THE PAST SIMPLE TENSE

Banjaluka, february 2023.

When to use the past simple tense

How to construct the simple past tense

Infinitive verb Past simple verb

To be was (I/he/she) were (you/we/they)

How to form negative statements in the past simple tense

Subject Verb (To be)

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