9. The Simple Past Tense

Learning Outcomes

After completing Chapter 7, students will know how to:

  • use the functions of the Simple Past Tense.
  • form the Simple Past Tense in affirmative statements, negative statements and questions.
  • apply the Simple Past Tense in various situations.
  • use the correct spelling rules for regular verbs in the Simple Past Tense.

Functions of the Simple Past Tense

The Simple Past Tense is used for

  1. finished past actions.
  2. repeated past actions.

Let us discuss these points in detail:

Finished past actions:

This is a timeline. There is a black line horizontal across the page with an arrow pointing to the right with the word future underneath. On the opposite side, there is an arrow pointing left with the word past underneath. In the centre of the time line is an arrow pointing down indicating with the word now written above it. There is a blue X on the black line between the now arrow and the past arrow.
“Simple Past Timeline” by Virginia McHardy, licensed under CC BY 4.0.

Actions that started and finished in the time before now.  Some examples are:

  • I cleaned my house yesterday.
  • He played basketball last night.
  • They didn’t wash their dishes.
  • We didn’t finish our homework in time.
  • Did you go to the game on Friday?

Repeated past actions:

This is a timeline. There is a black line horizontal across the page with an arrow pointing to the right with the word future underneath. On the opposite side, there is an arrow pointing left with the word past underneath. In the centre of the time line is an arrow pointing down indicating with the word now written above it. There are three blue exes spread out evenly on the black line between the now arrow and the past arrow.
“Repeated Past actions” by Virginia McHardy, licensed under CC BY 4.0.

Actions that happened over and over again in the past. Some examples are:

  • I went to the store 3 times yesterday.
  • They played basketball every day in elementary school.
  • She watched that movie repeatedly as a child.

**Time Markers for The Simple Past Tense

Some common time markers used with The Simple Past Tense are:

  • yesterday
  • last night/week/month/year
  • ago (2 days ago/5 weeks ago/10 years ago)

Form of The Simple Past Tense

Let us now explore how the Simple Past Tense is formed with regular *verbs:

Affirmative Sentences: Subject + verb + ed
Subject + verb + ed + past time marker.
I cleaned yesterday.
He played yesterday.
Melissa danced yesterday.
They studied** yesterday.

* Irregular verbs are all different. You need to memorize the affirmative forms using the list of commonly used verbs in Chapter 13.

Negative Sentences: Subject + did + not + base verb
Subject + did+ not + base verb
I did not * clean.
He did not play.
They did not study.

* did not = didn’t

Yes/No Questions: Did + subject + base verb?
Did + subject + base verb? Short Answer
Did you clean? Yes, I did./No, I didn’t.
Did Noah play? Yes, he did./No, he didn’t.
Did they study Yes, they did./No, they didn’t.
Information Questions: Wh- + did + subject + base verb?
Wh- question word + did + subject base verb?
What did you eat?
Where did Meghan go?
When did they arrive?
There is a chart for spelling rules. There are two columns. The First Column is titled rule for regular verbs. The second column is named example. Under the rule for regular verbs column the first row says for most verbs just add E D. In the first row under the example column play Arrow played help Arrow helped call Arrow called. In the second row under rule for regular verbs, it says for verbs that end in consonant plus y change the Y to I and add E D. In the second row under example cry Arrow cried copy Arrow copied marry Arrow married. under the third row for rule for regular verbs, it states for verbs that end in CVC (consonant vowel consonant) pattern, double the final consonant and add E D. Example rob Arrow robbed mop arrow mopped ban Arrow banned. In the last row under rule for regular verbs it says for verbs that end in silent E, just add D. Example vote arrow voted bike Arrow biked wave arrow waved
Spelling Rules for The Simple Past Tense by Virginia McHardy, licensed under CC BY 4.0.

(For common irregular verb forms, see Chapter 13.)

Simple Past Review of Form and Function Video

Watch the video Simple Past – Grammar & Verb Tenses (5:47 minutes) on YouTube to review the form of Simple Past and some irregular verbs.  Do the practice activities at the end of the video!

https://youtu.be/MI3S3kdkofoVideo Source: Ellii (formerly ESL Library). (2020, September 14). Simple past – Grammar & verb tenses [Video]. YouTube. https://youtu.be/MI3S3kdkofo

Simple Past Form Practice – Affirmative

Fill in the blanks with the verb in brackets. Remember that some verbs are irregular. See if you can guess the correct form.

Simple past – Recap (Text Version)

Fill in the blanks with simple past tense form of the verb given in the bracket.

  1. I _______ [Blank 1 – receive] a parcel from my aunt last week.
  2. The great ship Titanic _______ [Blank 1] (sink) after colliding with an iceberg.
  3. The little girl _______ [Blank 1 – break] the glass tumbler.
  4. If he _______ [Blank 1 – play] well, we would not have been defeated.
  5. The members _______ [Blank 1 – select] him as the captain.
  6. The shephard _______ [Blank 1 – count] his sheep twice, after he returned home in the evening.
  7. I _______ [Blank 1 – get] a beautiful gift from my brother.
  8. Praveen _______ [Blank 1 – keep] his books in the book-shelf.
  9. The plane _______ [Blank 1 – fly] towards the east after it took off.
  10. They _______ [Blank 1 – record] the complete wedding.
  11. The teacher _______ [Blank 1 – appreciate] Youssef for getting good grades.

Check your answers[1]

Activity Source: “Simple past – Recap” by Annapurna Madhuri, edited by Sari Martin, from “Simple Past and Past Continuous” In Effective English for Teachers by Annapurna Madhuri, licensed under CC BY-NC SA 4.0. / Converted to text.

Simple Past Form Practice – Negative

Simple past – negative sentences (Text Version)

Rewrite each of the sentences in the negative form, as shown in the example.

Example: Shanti bought a car last year.

Shanti did not buy a car last year.

Note the sentence structure: Subject (Shanti) + did not buy (base verb of bought) + object (a car) + time period (signal word – last year)? (most importantly – question tag)

  1. Valentina came here three days ago.
  2. They watched a movie last night.
  3. David cleaned his house yesterday.
  4. We worked hard that day.
  5. She had a bath early in the morning.

Check your answers [2]

Activity source: “Simple Past – Negative Sentences”  by Annapurna Madhuri, edited by Sari Martin, from “Simple Past” In Effective English for Teachers by Annapurna Madhuri, licensed under CC BY-NC SA 4.0. / Converted to text and minor edits.

Simple Past Form Practice – Interrogative

Simple past – interrogative sentences (Text Version)

Rewrite each of the sentences in the form of a question/interrogative form, as shown in the example.

Example: Pierre bought a car last year.

Did Pierre buy a car last year?

Note the sentence structure: Did + subject (Pierre) + buy (base verb of bought) + object (a car) + time period (signal word – last year)? (most importantly – question tag)

  1. Valentina came here three days ago.
  2. They watched a movie last night.
  3. David cleaned his house yesterday.
  4. We worked hard that day.
  5. She had a bath early in the morning.

Check your answers [3]

Activity source: “Present Continuous” by Annapurna Madhuri, edited by Sari Martin, from “Simple Past and Past Continuous”  In Effective English for Teachers by Annapurna Madhuri, licensed under CC BY-NC SA 4.0. / Questions edited and converted to text.

Simple Past All Forms Review

Simple Past – Wrap up 2 (Text Version)

Arrange the jumbled words, using a suitable form of the verb (Marked with an * to make proper sentences.

Example: you/from/hear/the/new/job/did/?

Answer:  Did you hear from the new job?

  1. Mohammed/*play/toys/did/with/?/his
  2. *borrow/Alice/sister’s/dress/new/for/party/the/her
  3. train/leave/did/the/station/?/time/on/the
  4. examination/lot/Sameer/before/*waste/of/a/time/his
  5. not/Sofia/grade/receive/good/a/did/

Check your answers [4]

Activity source: “Simple Past – Wrap Up 2” by Annapurna Madhuri, edited by Sari Martin, from “Simple Past” In Effective English for Teachers by Annapurna Madhuri,  licensed under CC BY-NC SA 4.0. / Questions edited and converted to text.

Verb Tenses in Music

For a fun activity, search the web and find the following songs:

  • Because You Loved Me by Celine Dion
  • A Day in the Life – The Beatles

Can you hear the Simple Past Tense in the lyrics?

Why did the biology teacher break up with the other science teacher? There was no chemistry!
“The Simple Past Tense Joke” by Virginia McHardy, licensed under CC BY 4.0.

Attribution & References

Except where otherwise noted, “The Simple Past Tense” by Sari Martin & Virginia McHardy is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0.

    1. received
    2. sank
    3. broke
    4. played
    5. selected
    6. counted
    7. got
    8. kept
    9. flew
    10. recorded
    11. appreciated
    ↵
    1. Valentina did not come here three days ago.
    2. They did not watch a movie last night.
    3. David did not clean his house yesterday.
    4. We did not work hard that day.
    5. She did not have a bath early in the morning.
    ↵
    1. Did Valentina come here three days ago?
    2. Did they watch a movie last night?
    3. Did David clean his house yesterday?
    4. Did we work hard that day?
    5. Did she have a bath early in the morning?
    ↵
    1. Did Mohammed play with his toys?
    2. Alice borrowed her sister's new dress for the party.
    3. Did the train leave the station on time?
    4. Sameer wasted a lot of time before his examination.
    5. Sofia did not receive a good grade.
    ↵

License

Icon for the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License

Verb Tenses for English for Academic Purposes Copyright © 2019 by Sari Martin and Virginia McHardy is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License, except where otherwise noted.

Digital Object Identifier (DOI)

https://doi.org/Effective English for Teachers

Share This Book