Simple Past Tense

Let's talk about what happened yesterday!

What is the Simple Past?

We use the simple past tense to talk about actions that started and finished in the past. Look for words like yesterday, last week, in 2010, or an hour ago.

1. Regular Verbs (+ed)

For most verbs, we add -ed to make the simple past form.

Example: Yesterday, I watched a movie.

Activity A: Fill in the Blanks

1. I ____________ (work) for 8 hours yesterday.
2. She ____________ (clean) her room last Saturday.
3. We ____________ (listen) to music this morning.

2. Irregular Verbs

Some verbs are special! They have a different form for the past and don't end in -ed. You need to remember them.

Present
Past
go
→ went
eat
→ ate
see
→ saw
buy
→ bought
have
→ had

Example: Last week, they went to the beach.

Activity B: Choose the Correct Past Tense Verb

1. I ____________ a sandwich for lunch.
2. He ____________ a new car yesterday.
3. We ____________ a great time at the party.

3. Negatives and Questions

For negatives and questions in the past, we use did. The main verb stays in its base form (no -ed!).

Negative (did not / didn't)

Subject + didn't + base verb

Example: He didn't work yesterday.

Question (Did...?)

Did + Subject + base verb?

Example: Did you work yesterday?

Activity C: Make the sentence negative or a question.

1. (Negative) I played tennis.

→ I tennis.

2. (Question) She went to the cinema.

→ to the cinema?

3. (Negative) They saw the new movie.

→ They the new movie.

4. Story Time!

Read the story and fill in the blanks with the simple past form of the verbs in parentheses.

Yesterday was a beautiful day. The sun shone brightly. My friend and I (walk) to the park. We (see) many birds. We (play) football for an hour. After that, we (eat) ice cream. It (be) a perfect day!