Simple Past Tense  - English Grammar

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The Simple Past Tense is used to express the idea that an action started and finished at a specific time in the past. It is possible that the speaker does not actually state the specific time, but they do have one specific time in mind when they speak about a finished action or situation in the past. 

Recognising and Understanding the Simple Past Tense

The following text describes what you saw in the English grammar video. The identified verbs in the past tense are highlighted.

• What happened in the video? Jennifer was at the kitchen table. She wanted to eat something. First, she thought about eating candy. She opened the candy jar in front of her and took out a piece.
• Then she looked at the apple. In the end, she didn’t eat the candy. She put it back and ate the apple. That was a good choice.

Forms and Meanings: to be

In the simple past tense the verb to be has two forms:

• was
  • Was is used with singular nouns (e.g. apple), uncountable nouns (e.g. candy), and the pronouns I, she, he, and it.
  • Examples: I was hungry. She was in the kitchen. There was candy in the jar. The apple was a good choice.

• were
  • Were is used with plural nouns (e.g. pieces), compound subjects (e.g. apple and candy), and the pronouns you, we, and they.
  • Examples: You were hungry. The apple and candy were on the table. There were many pieces of candy in the jar.

We often use the verb to be in the simple past tense to tell about a past event, state, or condition. (e.g. Jennifer was at the kitchen table. She was hungry.) All of this happened in the past and was also true in the past.

Forms and Meanings: regular verbs

In the simple past, regular verbs end in -ed. The identified regular verbs in the following text are highlighted.

• Jennifer was at the kitchen table. She wanted to eat something. First, she thought about eating candy. She opened the candy jar in front of her and took out a piece. Then she looked at the apple. In the end, she didn’t eat the candy. She put it back and ate the apple. That was a good choice.

Spelling rules:

• Add -ed to a verb that ends in a consonant (want + ed = wanted)

• If a verb ends in consonant-vowel-consonant, double the last consonant before adding -ed. (stop + ed = stopped)
  • Don’t double the consonants w, x and y!! (fix + ed = fixed)
  • Don’t double the last consonant if the last syllable is unstressed!! (open + ed = opened)

• Add only -d to a verb that ends in e (like + d = liked)

• If a verb ends in y, change y to an i and then add -ed (carry + ed = carried)
  • If there is a vowel before a y simply add -ed. (play + ed = played)

Forms and Meanings: irregular verbs

What are the infinitives of the irregular verbs in the following sentences from the text in the grammar video?

• She thought about eating candy.
  • to think

• She took out a piece.
  • to take

• She put it back in the jar.
  • to put

• She ate the apple.
  • to eat

further exercises:

• Past Perfect Tense 
• Past Continuous Tense
• Present Simple vs. Past Simple