Simple Past Tense

Simple Past Tense

We use the Simple Past Tense to talk about:

• completed actions at a definite time in the past

• states/ conditions and repeated events in the past

Let's have a look at the following examples:

• It was boiling hot every day last week.

• The boys played basketball from noon till 2 p.m. yesterday.

• Sarah washed the dishes and then did her homework this evening.

The simple past tense is often used with the following time expressions:

• just now

• earlier this week

• last night/ week/ year/ month

• this morning

• the day before yesterday

• the other day

• two weeks ago

We form negative statements in the simple past tense with the verb to be like this:

• verb to be + not + noun

• verb to be + not + adjective

• verb to be + not + prepositional phrase

verb to be + not + noun

• Kevin was not a teacher.

• Mary was not a mother.

• My parents were not doctors.

verb to be + not + adjective

• Sam was not furious with me.

• The movie was not hilarious.

• The stories were not that heart-breaking.

verb to be + not + prepositional phrase

• Were you at home?

• Was Jack at work just now?

• Were your parents in the farm?

We form negative statements in the simple past tense with the verb to do like this:

• verb to do + not + base form of verb

verb to do + not + base form of verb

• Owen did not run the marathon.

• Paul did not cry.

• Peter did not sleep last night.