What is the simple past?

The simple past is a grammatical tense used to indicate that an action or event occurred in the past and is now completed. In English, the simple past can be formed in a number of ways depending on the verb being used.

For regular verbs, the simple past is formed by adding “-ed” to the base form of the verb. For example, “walk” becomes “walked” in the simple past.

However, for irregular verbs, the simple past form may be different from the base form. These irregular verbs have to be memorized and cannot be predicted by following any regular rule. For example, “go” becomes “went” in the simple past, and “do” becomes “did”.

In terms of sentence structure, the simple past is typically formed by using the past form of the verb with the subject. For example: “I walked to the store.”

How to form a simple past sentence?

To form a simple past sentence in the positive form, you use the past form of the verb.

For example:

• I walked to the store.
• She sang a song.

To form a simple past sentence in the negative form, you use the past form of the verb with “did not” (also known as “didn’t”).

For example:

• I did not walk to the store.
• She did not sing a song.

To form a question in the simple past, you use “did” + the subject + the base form of the verb.

For example:

• Did you walk to the store?
• Did she sing a song?

Past simple sentences

Regular verbs and their past simple form

• talk – talked
• clean – cleaned
• watch – watched
• work – worked
• dance – danced
• study – studied
• play – played
• listen – listened
• cook – cooked
• paint – painted
• visit – visited
• call – called
• arrive – arrived
• travel – traveled
• love – loved

Irregular verbs and their past form

• be – was, were
• become – became
• begin – began
• break – broke
• bring – brought
• buy – bought
• catch – caught
• choose – chose
• come – came
• cost – cost
• cut – cut
• do – did
• draw – drew
• drink – drank
• drive – drove
• eat – ate
• fall – fell
• feel – felt
• fight – fought
• find – found
• fly – flew
• forget – forgot
• get – got
• give – gave
• go – went
• grow – grew
• hang – hung
• have – had
• hear – heard
• hide – hid

It’s worth noting that this is not an exhaustive list of all irregular verbs in English, but a list of some of the most common irregular verbs. Additionally, it’s good practice to memorize the irregular verbs and their past forms, as they don’t follow the regular rule of adding -ed to form the past tense.

Any questions? Write me a comment below and I’ll help you out!