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The simple past tense, sometimes called the preterite, is used to talk about a completed action in
a time before now. The simple past is the basic form of past tense in English. The time of the
action can be in the recent past or the distant past and action duration is not important.
The "simple past" is used to talk about an action that ended in a time before the current one. The
duration is not relevant. The time in which the action is located may be the recent past or a distant
past.
Many frequently used verbs are irregular. You find these words in the appendix of a dictionary or
in your English book. You must learn these words by heart.
1. Be as a main verb
2. Do as a main verb
3. We use the Simple Past (red) together with the Past Progressive (grey). The action in the Simple
Past interrupted the action in the Past Progressive (the one which was in progress).
Obs: Use the same form of the verb every time regardless the subject.
Use the auxiliary did (Simple Past of do) every time regardless the subject.
In the Simple Past we add -ed to regular verbs. Be careful pronouncing the verbs:
1. Verbs ending in -ed preceded by a voiceless consonant [p, k, f, ʃ, ʧ, s, θ] → speak [t].
The -e is silent.
Example: I stop – I stopped [stɒpt]
We often use short/contracted forms of auxiliaries in spoken English. The Simple Past is formed
with a main verb, so short/contracted forms are only used with negative forms.
1. Affirmative forms
2. Negative forms
These words tell you what tense you have to use. For the Simple Past these are expressions of
time in the past.
yesterday
last week
a month ago
in 2010
this morning
You have to know all forms of irregular verbs very well. For the Simple Past you need the form of
the verb which can be found in the 2nd column of the table of irregular verbs.
go → went → gone
Add -ed with regular verbs:
regular verbs → infinitive + -ed
1. Adding -ed
1.1. Consonant after a short, stressed vowel at the end of the word
Stop – stopped
Swap – swapped
Love – loved
Save – saved
1.3. Verbs ending in -y
The Simple Past is used to talk about actions or situations in the past. It is also called Past Simple.
3. Together with the Past Progressive/Continuous – the Simple Past interrupted an action which
was in progress in the past.
EXAMPLES
You always use the simple past when you say when something happened, so it is associated with
certain past time expressions