Simple Past

What is it used for?

The Simple Past is used to talk about actions that happened and finished in the past, with no connection to the present.

Examples:

• I visited my grandma yesterday.

• She played soccer last week.

• They went to the cinema.

Structure of the Simple Past.

Affirmative Form
Subject + verb in past form

There are 2 types of verbs:

Regular Verbs: add -ed

• play → played

• watch → watched

• live → lived

Irregular Verbs: they change completely

• go → went

• eat → ate

• see → saw

Affirmative Examples

Subject

Verb

Sentence

I

visited

I visited my parents.

She

played

She played basketball.

They

went

They went to the store.

Negative Form

Subject + did not (didn’t) + base form of the verb

⚠️ Important: After “didn’t,” the verb goes back to its base form.

Negative Examples:

• I didn’t watch TV yesterday.

• He didn’t eat pizza.

• We didn’t go to school.

❓ Interrogative Form

Did + subject + base form of the verb + ?

📌 Questions Examples:

• Did you study for the exam?

• Did she travel last summer?

• Did they play video games?

📌 Short Answers:

• Yes, I did.

• No, he didn’t

Past Time Expressions

Regular Verbs

Base

Past

play

played

watch

watched

open

opened

study

studied

agree

agreed

These words are commonly used with the past tense:

Expression

Meaning

yesterday

ayer

last week / last year

la semana pasada / el año pasado

two days ago

hace dos días

in 2010

en 2010

when I was a child

cuando era niño

Basic List of Regular and Irregular Verbs

Irregular Verbs

Base

Past

go

went

eat

ate

see

saw

have

had

make

made