Past Simple is the past simple tense in English. Past Simple Examples

Past Simple is used to express action in the past tense. The formation of the affirmative form depends on whether the verb is regular or not. Irregular verbs have 3 forms that you will need to learn. If the verb belongs to this category, then the 2nd form of the verb is taken, or V2: I woke up - I woke up, we made - we did, he sang - he sang.

Regular verbs are formed by adding the ending –ed to the stem of the verb: they laughed - they laughed, I typed - I typed, she cleaned - she cleaned.

Negative form

The Past Simple is formed in a negative form using the auxiliary verb to do in the Past Indefinite and the particle not, to which the infinitive of the semantic verb is added.

He did not write. - He didn’t write.

We didn't make. - We didn't.

Please note

The last example shows a shortened form of negation; it is also reflected in spoken language.

Question form

To ask a question, you just need to move did to the beginning of the sentence; the order of the remaining words remains the same.

Did he write? Did we make? Did they clean?

Passive design

In the passive voice, the auxiliary to be is placed before the main verb in the 3rd form or a verb ending in –ed in the Past Simple. The table includes the formulas of the two collaterals for comparison.

Active and passive voice in Past Indefinite

Cases of use

Find out what options there are for using the Past Simple. The rules state that this tense denotes events that happened in the past. However, Past Simple Tense can be used in both past and present tense contexts. It is used in the following cases.

To express a one-time action

The event happened once in the past. Often the time of the action is indicated, usually it refers to the past tense, but the Simple Past Tense also occurs with such adverbs of time as: tonight, this morning, today, etc.

I just passed exams two months ago. – I passed the exams only two months ago.

I saw her in the school this morning. – I saw her at school this morning.

The time of action can be implied in a situation by mentioning the place of events or other accompanying circumstances, which can be expressed in Past Indefinite. The rules do not specify such options - you need to pay attention to the context itself.

She ate chocolate hearts in Paris. – She ate chocolate hearts in Paris.

He called me at breakfast to tell the latest news. “He called me at breakfast to tell me the latest news.

There are cases when mentioning time or place is not necessary, because... the speaker and the listener understand what event is being discussed.

I didn`t understand what he said. – I didn’t understand what he said.

He didn`t mean to hurt her feelings. “He didn’t want to offend her.”

Question in Past Indefinite.

To express events that happened during a certain period

In this case, the action itself has already ended, the period during which it took place is indicated. A period of time is usually indicated using an adverbial phrase with the prepositions for, during and expressions synonymous with them.

We discussed for 5 days. – We argued for 5 days.

Last year I traveled to Brazil during my summer holidays. – Last year during the summer holidays I went to Brazil.

To express sequential events

Such examples may appear in the narrative.

I came there very early, then I cleaned the place and prepared everything. “I got there very early, then cleaned up and got everything ready.

Actions in this case can be either one-time or take an entire period of time. In the latter case, prepositional phrases for, from...to, during or phrases all night, all day, etc. can be used in the phrase.

To indicate a repetitive action

In this case, as a rule, frequency adverbs are also used: never, now, often, for weeks, again, sometimes, etc.

You often reminded me of him. – You often reminded me of him.

Sometimes he found this story too good to be true. “Sometimes he thought the story was too good to be true.”

To express constant action

In this case, the subject is given a general characteristic.

She wore her hair in a high ponytail. – She wore a high ponytail.

Please note

The verb wear can be used not only with clothes, in English you can also “wear” hair, i.e. hairstyle

He lived in Spain for 6 years and still didn’t speak Spanish quite well. – He lived in Spain for 6 years and still didn’t speak Spanish very well.

Instead of Past Continuous

To express events currently happening in the past. The past continuous tense is not used with stative verbs and is replaced in these cases by the Past Simple. Example sentences will help you better understand what is being said.

At that moment he wanted her to tell the truth. “At that moment he wanted her to tell the truth.

Also, the replacement of the Continuous by the Simple can occur with certain non-finite verbs. They can express thought processes, perceptions, feelings, emotions: remember, shine, gleam, lie, think, trust, etc. And substitution is also relevant in cases where events are treated as facts, and attention is focused specifically on the circumstances, under which they occurred.

He talked very fast, as if he had no time at all. “He spoke so quickly, as if he had no time at all.”

The street lights went off, but the moon gleamed and he could see her window. “The street lights went out, but the moon was shining and he could see her window.

Future tense event viewed from the past

This use of tense occurs in indirect speech and dependent structures. It can be found in concessive clauses, as well as tense and condition; in this case, the main clause may contain Future-in-the-Past or modal verbs.

She would, if she thought it effective, lie to him. “She could have lied if she thought it would do any good.”

Do the exercises in the Past Simple - describe everything you see in the picture using the tense you have learned.

Exercises Past Simple.

Remember that often, when using this tense, it is the very fact of the action that is important to the speaker and the conversation is not focused on the event as an ongoing process.

Watch the video lesson to reinforce the material:

There are different ways to express the past tense in English. Each of them has its own patterns, having comprehended which, you will be able to easily convey the events of the past in English. One of the most “in demand” tenses is the Past Simple.

It is very easy to draw a parallel here with the Russian language. Everything that we are accustomed to attributing to the past is expressed by the Past Simple (Indefinite). That is why it is called simple time, which conveys ordinary actions and isolated facts.

Formation of Past Simple in English

As in any tense, all points of contact converge in the form of the verb and the use of the auxiliary verb. In an affirmative sentence, the predicate takes either ending ed (if the verb is correct), or it is used second form (2nd column of irregular verbs): V ed or V 2(with all faces the same) . To form questions or negatives, you need an auxiliary verb did. In the first case, it takes place before the subject, in the second - after + the particle not. It is important to note that the predicate verb returns to its primary person, i.e. infinitive without to. It is easy to see how the Past Simple is formed using a table.

Not only in colloquial speech, but also in writing they often use shortened form.

Important nuances

• The first thing I want to note is the verb to be. In principle, it is incorrect, therefore it has a second form (was - singular / were - plural). In affirmative sentences it is used like this, but negative and interrogative sentences are formed without did: wasn’t, weren’t. Despite the fact that it is semantic, no auxiliary verb or other semantic verb is used with it in the past simple.

We were at home last night. — We were at home last night.

I wasn't the best student. — I was not the best student.

Were you in a new club? — Have you been to the new club?

• The pronunciation of the ending ed changes. It all depends on the letters next to each other:

after voiceless consonants - [t] - worked

after voiced consonants and vowels [d] - used, enjoyed

after t/d — — studied, landed

• Features of writing. The second form of the verb will have to be learned by heart, there is no way to escape from it. And with the addition of ed, not everything is easy either. When adding this ending to a word, sometimes there are some changes that are important to know:

1. If the word ends in "y", and in front of her is consonant, then “y” changes to “i”+ ed: try-tried, hurry - hurried. But: pl a y-pla y ed.
2. If a verb has a letter at the end "e", then when adding ed, one of the “e” disappears: change - changed, dance - danced.
3. If the verb ends in I agree(except c, w, z) or — er, -ur, and in front of her short vowel, then the last letter is doubled: stop - stopped, plan-planned, omit-omitted, occur - occurred.
4. If the latter is « l", then it is also duplicated: travel - travelled, quarel - quarelled.
5. Ending with "With", the verb in this case adds and "k": panic - panicked.

Cases of use

The rules for Past Simple (Indefinite) are quite easy to understand. And there are not many of them.

1. First of all, I would like to highlight isolated events in the past, facts. This way we emphasize what happened and simply state the fact. Vivid clues of this time are words such as ago (back), last year/month/week (last year, month, week), yesterday (yesterday), the other day (the other day), in 1998, in questions with when .

Last night my friends celebrated their anniversary. — Last night my friends celebrated their anniversary.

There wasn’t any rain in September. — There was no rain in September.

2. Alternately listed events in the past. The chronological order is very important: for example, got up, washed, had breakfast.

The dog picked up the bone and went away. — The dog picked up the bone and ran away.

She woke up, opened the window and switched on the TV. “She woke up, opened the window and turned on the TV.

3. Regular, constantly repeated actions in the past we will also express it in Past Indefinite: rarely, every week, often, always. You will immediately say that these are Present Simple pointers, and how can you find out. This is always clear from the context, whether the action refers to the present or the past. Just think about the proposal, don’t rush when you see the treasured clue.

Every week he took his son out. “Every week he took his son for a walk.

When I was a little boy I usually went to bed at 8. - When I was a little boy, I went to bed at 8 o'clock.

Sometimes there is confusion between the last function and the phrase used to do smth (be used to do smth). You can study this construction in detail in the article “Used to turnover”.

Even more examples of cases of using this tense can be found in the article “Examples of Past Simple”.

Comparison of times

The grammar of Past Indefinite Tense is quite simple. You will easily understand the formation and usage. But when comparing different past tenses, difficulties arise. Let's figure it out.

So, let's summarize. According to the rules of Past Simple (Indefinite), the verb changes its form, and negation and question are formed using did. When performing exercises and tests, comparing past simple (indefinite) with other tenses, remember that the first of them tells, informs, lets you know that the action happened sometime in the past. All the time frames are a little blurry, the exact time is never given.

This infographic shows the very basic information about the Past Simple. Read more below.

Past Simple education scheme: rules and examples

Let's look at how sentences with the Past Simple are formed in the affirmative, negative and interrogative forms.

Most verbs form the past simple form using the ending – ed, have special forms of the past tense. Let's take the example of the regular verb to visit- visit.

Examples:

Last week Dana invited me to her birthday party – Last week Dana invited me to celebrate her birthday.

I completed the course on Monday – I finished the course on Monday.

2. Past Simple in negative form: I didn’t visit

Negation is constructed using an auxiliary verb in the past tense form - did and particles not. The semantic verb is used in the initial form. In colloquial speech did not reduced to didn't’ t.

Examples:

Igor didn't meet me at the airport – Igor did not meet me at the airport.

We didn't order this meal – We did not order this dish.

3. Past Simple in interrogative form: Did I visit?

The interrogative form is also constructed using did- it is placed before . The semantic verb itself is used in the initial form (without endings).

Examples:

Did you go to school yesterday? – Did you go to school yesterday?

Did they feed your cat? – Did they feed your cat?

Meaning of Past Simple: When is the past simple used?

In most cases, the Past Simple denotes an action that happened at some point in the past. Unlike, it does not denote an ongoing, ongoing action. Let's look at the basic meanings of the past simple tense.

• An action that happened in the past (base case).

Action in the past, usually accompanied by clarifications like yesterday(yesterday), last week(last week) in 2011(in 2011), about two hours ago(about two hours ago) and so on.

This could be an action that happened at a certain moment:

I returned from the meeting an hour ago. – I returned from the meeting an hour ago.

We arrived to London at seven thirty-two PM. “We arrived in London at seven thirty-two in the evening.

At an approximate time in the past:

Karen purchased new car yesterday. – Karen bought a new car yesterday.

We met in 2011. – We met in 2011.

Or simply in the past, without specifying the time:

I lost my phone. – I lost my phone.

He won.- He won.

• An action repeated in the past.

In this case, there is tense in the sentence, otherwise it would be unclear what is meant. For example: last summer- last summer, every evening- every evening.

Last summer I spent a lot of time in the country – Last summer I spent a lot of time outside the city (that is, I visited the country from time to time).

She visited us almost every evening – She visited us almost every evening.

In the meaning of “a repeated action in the past”, instead of the past simple tense, the following is often used:

I used to spend a lot of time in country – I (often) spent a lot of time outside the city.

She used to visit us almost every evening – She visited us almost every evening.

• Consecutive past actions.

When recounting events, we often use the simple past tense:

Harry woke up, took a shower and made breakfast. – Harry woke up, took a shower and cooked breakfast.

She closed her eyes and smiled. “She closed her eyes and smiled.

Past Simple video tutorial and exercises

The Past Simple topic is discussed in detail in the video lesson on Puzzle English. After watching the video, you can also do strengthening exercises.

Tense, or simply Past Simple, has not too complicated rules. The main thing is to thoroughly understand them. In addition, this tense is one of the most common in the English language. So, Past Simple is

simple is used primarily to describe completed actions in the past, as well as to describe events that were once repeated.

The rules of the Past Simple state that the main array is formed by adding the ending -ed to the stem of a regular verb:

We played different games. - We played various games.

There are, however, several special cases of adding this ending. Let's look at them:

Irregular verbs have three forms, each of which will have to be learned. One thing is reassuring - there are not many such exceptions in the English language:

I read "Harry Potter" yesterday. - I read Harry Potter yesterday.

Interrogative sentences in the tense under consideration are formed with the participation of an auxiliary in the second form), occupying a place before the noun (subject). The main verb remains unchanged:

Did we play? - We played?

When composing, the helping verb did is also placed before the subject, and the necessary interrogative pronoun is placed before the auxiliary verb:

When did he come? - When did he come?

Why did you cry? - Why were you crying?

Negation is usual for the Past Simple, but here there is no exception:

We didn't play. - We didn't play.

Instead of “did not”, the phrase “didn’t” is most often used for shortening.

Here is a table with examples of using the Past Simple (rules for composing affirmative, interrogative and negative forms with regular and irregular verbs):

So, we have looked at the formation of the Past Simple, and we will give the rules for using this tense below.

1) An expression of a constant action or attribute of an object, its property or a well-known fact that once took place in the past:

She was so good friend. - She was such a good friend.

The school replaced here. - There was a school here.

2) Expression of single actions in the past. In this case, we also use phrases like yesterday (yesterday), last week, year (last week, last year), a month ago (a month ago), in 1991 (in 1991), on Monday (on Monday) and other:

I saw him a month ago. - I saw him a month ago.

He visited his granny last week. - He visited his beloved grandmother last week.

3) Expression of regularly performed actions in the past:

He never came late. - He was never late.

4) Expression of several successive actions in the past in the order in which they took place:

He opened the box and saw the mail. - He opened the box and saw a letter.

It remains only to add that the Past Simple rule does not imply such a thing as “a type of verb”. Therefore, translation in this case is carried out based on the general context of a sentence or series of sentences.

That's all we wanted to tell you about Past Simple. The rules for its use, we hope, will not cause you any difficulties. Good luck!

English language learners encounter this grammatical topic fairly quickly. You need to tell, for example, what you did yesterday. How to do this? Obviously, use a special form of the verb, different from the one used in the present tense. To do this correctly, you need to know the general principle by which the past tense is formed in English. This is what this article is about.

When is the best time to start studying?

First of all, it is necessary to clarify that you need to approach the study of the past form of a verb only after you have completely mastered how to form the present tense. Especially in sentences where pronouns are the subject he, she, it(or their corresponding nouns). If you still do not feel confident with the present tense, then it is better to postpone a detailed acquaintance with the past. Otherwise, you risk getting confused. Especially in light of the fact that it is necessary to study not only affirmative, but also interrogative and negative sentences.

Let's start by understanding the two main principles by which English verbs change in the past tense. This is the basis of this topic in grammar.

Regular and irregular verbs

The first group is the most numerous, but the method of formation here is the simplest. In the second group, everything is somewhat more complicated, which is why verb forms have to be learned by heart. But the plus is that there are not so many of them. And there are even fewer of those that are constantly used in speech. But first things first.

Let's start with regular verbs. They are named so because they form the past tense according to a single pattern (rule). In English this is done by adding the suffix -ed. For example:

• look - looked - looked;
• answer - answered - answered.

In these chains you see the initial form of the verb, then the simple past tense (in English Past Simple) and the past participle (Past Participle).

If the stem of the verb ends with a consonant and a vowel - y, then in the past form it changes to - i, as in these examples:

• cry - cried - cried;
• study - studied - studied.

If before -y there is one more vowel, then no change occurs:

• destroy - destroyed - destroyed.

With the second group of verbs (irregular) the situation is somewhat more complicated. They have no fixed ways of forming past forms. In addition, irregular verbs often have different forms of the past tense and the corresponding participle, for example:

• write - wrote - written.

In some cases, two forms or even all three may coincide:

• send - sent - sent;
• put - put - put.

Since such verbs do not follow a single rule for the formation of past forms, they are simply remembered like a poem.

Past forms for be, have, can

These verbs are used not only as semantic ones, but also as auxiliary and modal ones (that is, they convey a certain grammatical meaning), so they need to be highlighted separately.

Past tense in English: a brief description

Surely you already know that there are a total of 12 tenses in this language. It turns out that there are 4 of them that have passed. Let’s figure out why each one is needed.

Past Simple is used when:

1. The action took place at a certain, known moment in the past (or there was a constant sign of the object):

   We lived there in 1998.
   He was a doctor.

2. The action was repeated regularly in the past:

   I went fishing every summer.

3. Several actions were performed in the past one after another:

   She came home, had lunch, washed the dishes and went shopping.

Past Continuous is used when:

1. The action took place at the indicated moment in the past:

   Last night I was watching TV at home.

2. The action lasted for a designated period of time in the past:

   They were playing football from 10 a.m. to 12 a.m.

Past Perfect is used when:

1. An action occurred before a certain moment in the past (or before another past action):

   She had cooked dinner before I came back.

Past Perfect Continuous is used when:

1. The action lasted and ended in the past; Often this is the result:

   He was tired because he had been working all night.

Declarative, interrogative and negative sentences

Let's look at the basic principles in the form of a diagram. You can form different types of sentences, which will be united by one similarity - the past tense. The English language offers fairly uniform basics, which are not difficult to remember.

In the diagrams below, V means verb (verb), and the numbers 2 or 3 in the lower corner are the second or third form in the table of irregular verbs.

Easier than it seems - that’s what can be said about such a phenomenon as the past tense in English. The more practice (do exercises, listen to texts, read, answer questions, participate in dialogues), the better you will do. Not all of the past tenses are used in everyday speech. But you need to know them all in order to understand the books you read, newspapers, etc., complex sources of information. Indeed, in a sentence in English, the type of tense used helps to better understand the idea expressed by the author.