The Past Simple is used to talk about finished actions and situations in the past. The time is understood as “before now,” and the action or state is complete. It is common when you say when something happened or when the sequence of events is clear from context.

Past Simple often appears with finished-time expressions that point to a completed past period. These markers help listeners place the action at a specific past time or within a finished past timeframe. You can also use Past Simple without a marker when the past time is clear from the conversation.

Word/Phrase	Definition	Example
yesterday	one day before today	I called you yesterday.
last week	in the week before this one	We met last week.
in 2019	at a specific year in the past	She moved to London in 2019.
two hours ago	a finished time before now	He left two hours ago.
when I was a child	during a finished past life period	When I was a child, I loved comics.

Most verbs form the Past Simple by adding -ed to the base form. Spelling changes happen with verbs ending in -e, verbs ending in consonant plus -y, and some one-syllable verbs that double the final consonant. The pronunciation of -ed can change, but the spelling is still -ed.

Many common verbs have an irregular Past Simple form that must be memorized because it does not follow the -ed pattern. The Past Simple form stays the same for all subjects. Learning the most frequent irregular verbs quickly improves accuracy and comprehension.

Affirmative Past Simple uses the past form of the main verb: regular -ed forms or irregular forms. The verb form does not change with I, you, he, she, it, we, or they. Word order is the same as in the present: subject + verb + object or complement.

Negative Past Simple is formed with did not or didn’t plus the base form of the main verb. The main verb does not take -ed in negatives because did already shows past time. This pattern is the same for all subjects.

Rule	Example
Use did not or didn’t plus base verb	I didn’t watch the film.
Do not use a past verb form after didn’t	She didn’t go home early.
Place not after did in formal writing	They did not agree.

Most Past Simple questions use did plus the subject plus the base form of the verb. Like negatives, the main verb stays in the base form because did carries the past meaning. Wh- questions use a question word first, then did, then subject, then base verb.

Rule	Example
Yes no questions use Did plus subject plus base verb	Did you enjoy the trip?
Wh questions use Wh word plus did plus subject plus base verb	Where did he park?
Short answers use did or didn’t	Yes, I did. No, I didn’t.

The verb be is special in the Past Simple: it does not use did in negatives or questions. Use was with I, he, she, it and were with you, we, they. For questions, invert was or were with the subject; for negatives, add not after was or were.

Subject	Form	Example
I	was	I was tired.
you	were	You were late.
he	was	He was at home.
she	was	She was happy.
it	was	It was cold.
we	were	We were surprised.
they	were	They were ready.

Past Simple can describe past states and repeated or habitual actions that are finished. It is common with stative verbs like know, like, want, and have when the meaning is a past state. For past habits, Past Simple often appears with frequency words or with time periods that are finished.

Past Simple is the main tense for telling stories and describing a sequence of completed events. It helps you present actions in the order they happened, often one after another. This is frequent in anecdotes, news reports, biographies, and instructions about past events.