The simple past
The simple past is a tense used to talk about actions or events that happened in the past and are now finished. To form the simple past, we usually add -ed to the end of regular verbs. For example, “walk” becomes “walked.”
For irregular verbs, the past tense form is different, and you need to memorise them. For example, “go” becomes “went.”
We use the simple past to talk about actions that happened at a specific time in the past. For example, “I went to the store yesterday.”
We can also use the simple past to talk about a series of past events. For example, “I woke up, brushed my teeth, and had breakfast.”
Remember, we usually use the simple past to talk about finished actions or events in the past. So, if you want to talk about ongoing or continuous actions in the past, you need to use other verb tenses, like the past continuous.
Examples
( + ) Affirmative
Present: I walk in the park every day.
Past: I walked in the park yesterday.
Present: You arrive at work at 09:00.
Past: You arrived at work at 09:00.
Present: The students ask the teacher for help.
Past: The students asked the teacher for help.
Present: Mohamed starts studying at 10:00.
Past: Mohamed started studying at 10:00.
Regular verbs – ed
Present | Past – ed |
shop | shopped |
pick | picked |
bake | baked |
work | worked |
fix | fixed |
look | looked |
ask | asked |
walk | walked |
dance | danced |
brush | brushed |
relax | relaxed |
cross | crossed |
