Past Simple Tense (explanations) VI grade

Definition of the simple past tense

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.

Examples

• John Cabot sailed to America in 1498.
• My father died last year.
• He lived in Fiji in 1976.
• We crossed the Channel yesterday.

You always use the simple past when you say when something happened, so it is associated with certain past time expressions

• frequency: often, sometimes, always
  I sometimes walked home at lunchtime.
  I often brought my lunch to school.
• a definite point in time: last week, when I was a child, yesterday, six weeks ago
  We saw a good film last week.
  Yesterday, I arrived in Geneva.
  She finished her work atseven o'clock
  I went to the theatre last night
• an indefinite point in time: the other day, ages ago, a long time ago
  People lived in caves a long time ago.
  She played the piano when she was a child.

Note: the word ago is a useful way of expressing the distance into the past. It is placed after the period of time: a week ago, three years ago, a minute ago.

Forming the Simple Past Tense

Patterns of simple past tense for regular verbs

Affirmative

Subject

+ verb + ed

I

skipped.

Negative

Subject

+ did not

+ infinitive without to

They

didn't

go.

Interrogative

Did

+ subject

+ infinitive without to

Did

she

arrive?

Interrogative negative

Did not

+ subject

+ infinitive without to

Didn't

you

play?