The Past Simple

Welcome to your Past Simple lesson! In this topic we talk about:
• Remember
• Affirmative form
• Question form
• Negative form
• Irregular verbs
• The past continuous
Take the quizzes when you’re ready! If you’re having problems, use the comment box to contact our English Teachers.

Remember

The past simple is a past tense in English. Depending upon its context, it can correspond to many diffent tenses in your language.

Affirmative form

To make the affirmative form of the past simple, we add -ed to the infinitive verb, or we add -d if the base verb ends in e:

watch → watched

text → texted

believe → believed

Question form

For the question form, we use the following structure: auxiliary (2), subject (1), verb (3). The auxiliary in the past simple is “did”:

Did you text me?

Did she believe me?

Notice that with the question form, we use a base verb.

Negative form

For the negative form, we use “did not” (didn’t) plus the base verb:

I didn’t watch TV yesterday.

He didn’t come last night.

Notice that with the negative form, we use a base verb.

Irregular verbs

A certain number of verbs in English are irregular. You’ll have to learn these by heart. Here are a few examples:

come → came

go → went

The past continuous

Just like the present simple, the past simple exists in -ing form (the past continuous) : we use the the auxiliary “be” in the past (was/were) plus the base verb, plus -ing:

“She was walking when she fell.”

For the question form, we use the structure auxiliary (2), subject (1), verb (3) -ing.

What was she doing?

We use the past continuous to talk about a past action that was interrupted by another.