What is Simple Past Tense?
The simple past tense is used to talk about actions or events that happened in the past and are finished. For regular verbs, we usually add “-ed” to make the past tense, but some irregular verbs have their own special forms. We use the simple past tense to show that something happened at a specific time in the past. It is also often used when telling stories.
Rules and Structure in Simple Past Tense
- Affirmative Sentence: Subject + Past Form of Verb + Object.
- Negative Sentence: Subject + Did not + Base Form of Verb + Object.
- Interrogative Sentence: Did + Subject + Base Form of Verb + Object?
Here are five examples of sentences in the past indefinite (simple past) tense:
- She visited the museum yesterday.
- They played football in the park.
- I finished my homework last night.
- He bought a new car last week.
- We watched a movie on Sunday.
Subject Verb Explanation:
Use “did not” with plural subjects and with “I,” “you,” “we,” and “they” in the past.
Use “did not” for singular third-person subjects like “he,” “she,” or “it” in the past.
How to Make Sentences in the Simple Past Tense?
The Simple Past Tense also has simple rules for forming positive, negative, and question sentences. Let’s look at each type with easy explanations and examples:
Affirmative or Positive Sentences
Affirmative sentences in the simple past tense describe actions that happened and were completed in the past. The structure of affirmative sentences is:
Structure: Subject + Past Form of Verb + Object
Examples:
- She went to the market.
- They played football yesterday.
- I finished the book.
- He called his friend.
- We attended the party.
Negative Sentence
Negative sentences in the Past Indefinite Tense show that an action did not happen at a specific time in the past.
Structure: Subject + Did not + Base Form of Verb + Object
Examples:
- She did not go to the market.
- They did not play football yesterday.
- I did not finish the book.
- He did not call his friend.
- We did not attend the party.
Interrogative Sentence
To ask questions in the Past Indefinite Tense, we place "did" before the subject. If question words like where, what, or when are used, they come at the beginning of the sentence, followed by "did" and the base form of the verb.
Structure: Did + Subject + Base Form of Verb + Object?
Examples:
- Did she go to the market?
- Did they play football yesterday?
- Did I finish the book?
- Did he call his friend?
- Did we attend the party?
