The Grammaring Guide to English Grammar with Exercises

Past simple

Form: past simple

Past simple for completed actions in the past

Past simple for past habits and states

Past simple for actions happening over a period of time in the past

Past simple to express a point in the past

The auxiliary DID for emphasis

Form: past simple

VERB-ED

Affirmative

Subject

Verb (past tense)

I

arrived

yesterday.

You

He/She/It

We

You

They

In the case of regular verbs, the past simple is formed by adding -ed to the base form of the verb for all persons. Note the changes in spelling:

look

»

look

ed

stay

»

stay

ed

arrive

»

arrive

d

(we only add

-d

if the verb ends in

-e

)

try

»

tr

ied

(a final

-y

changes to -

i-

after a consonant)

stop

»

stop

ped

(we double the final consonant if the verb ends in consonant-vowel-consonant)

A number of verbs have irregular past forms. A few examples are:

buy

»

bought

fly

»

flew

hit

»

hit

shine

»

shone

swim

»

swam

See the Appendix for a list of the most common irregular verbs in English.

Negative

In the negative, we use the auxiliary did + not followed by the bare infinitive:

Subject

Auxiliary

not

Verb (bare infinitive)

I

did

not

arrive

in time.

You

He/She/It

We

You

They

The contracted form didn't is often used instead of did not in spoken and in informal written language.

Interrogative

In the interrogative, we use the auxiliary did followed by the subject and the bare infinitive:

(Question word)

Auxiliary

Subject

Verb (bare infinitive)

(When)

did

I

arrive?

you

he/she/it

we

you

they

The verb BE in the past simple

The verb be has irregular past tense forms. In the past simple, the auxiliary did is not used in the negative or interrogative if the main verb is be:

Affirmative

Negative

Interrogative

I

was

at home.

I

was not

at home.

Was

I at home?

You

were

at home.

You

were not

at home.

Were

you at home?

He/She/It

was

at home.

He/She/It

was not

at home.

Was

he/she/it at home?

We

were

at home.

We

were not

at home.

Were

we at home?

You

were

at home.

You

were not

at home.

Were

you at home?

They

were

at home.

They

were not

at home.

Were

they at home?

The contracted forms wasn't and weren't are often used instead of was not and were not in spoken and in informal written language.

Related topics:

Subject-auxiliary inversion in questions

The auxiliary DID for emphasis

Appendix: irregular verb forms

Past simple for completed actions in the past

The past simple tense is used for actions which were completed at a definite point in time in the past. This point can be implied or expressed with a time expression or a clause:

I

bought

a motorbike last week.

She

was born

in 1990.

Columbus

discovered

America.

(i.e. in 1492)

How

did

it

happen

?

(i.e. when it happened)

When I got home, I

went

to bed straight away.

Examples of time expressions that refer to a definite time in the past:

a year/two months/a few weeks/three days/etc. ago

at 5 o'clock

yesterday

earlier today/this week/this month

last week/month/year

Quotes:

Millions saw the apple fall, but Newton asked why. - Bernard Baruch

I had been told that the training procedure with cats was difficult. It's not. Mine had me trained in two days. - Bill Dana

What you have become is the price you paid to get what you used to want. - Mignon McLaughlin

Past simple for past habits and states

The past simple is used to express habits and states that existed during a period of time in the past. This period can be implied or expressed with a time expression or a clause:

When I was a child, I

visited

my grandma every weekend.

(habit)

When my brother was young, he

liked

spinach.

(state)

Where

did

you

go

to primary school?

(habit, where the implied period of time is

when you went to primary school

)

Quotes:

The fishing was good; it was the catching that was bad. - A. K. Best

I had been told that the training procedure with cats was difficult. It's not. Mine had me trained in two days. - Bill Dana

Related topics:

Modals to express habits: WILL, WOULD, USED TO

Past continuous for frequently repeated actions in the past

Present simple for present habits and states

Past simple for actions happening over a period of time in the past

The past simple is used for actions that took place over a complete period of time in the past. This period is expressed with a time expression; however, the exact time may or may not be mentioned:

Pterodactyls

existed

between 1.5 billion and 70 million years ago.

From 1981 to 1984, he

worked

for a large multinational company.

Last week, I

stayed

with my sister for a few days.

(the exact time is not mentioned)

Joe

lived

in Boston for ten years.

(the exact time is not mentioned)

Related topics:

Present perfect with FOR and SINCE

Past simple to express a point in the past

The past simple is used to refer to a point in the past at which another event was in progress, had been completed or had been going on for some time. The past simple thus serves as a time marker in subordinate time clauses within complex sentences, where the main clause is in the past continuous, past perfect or past perfect continuous tense:

When I

called

her, she was studying.

By the time we

reached

the top, it had stopped raining.

When I

got

to her house, she had been waiting for hours.

Related topics:

Past continuous for actions in progress at a specific point in the past

Past perfect for actions completed before a point in the past

Present perfect with FOR and SINCE

IT'S (BEEN) + DAYS / WEEKS / MONTHS / etc. + SINCE

The auxiliary DID for emphasis

In the past simple, the auxiliary did followed by the bare infinitive form of the main verb can be used in affirmative sentences to express emphasis. In speech, the auxiliary is stressed:

I

did want

to tell you, but I didn't know how.

He

did arrive

late.

She

did go

to a school, but she is not nationally certified.

Related topics:

Form: past simple

DO, DOES, DID + bare infinitive