Simple Past

 

Study this example.

• Tom: Look! It's raining again.
• Ann: Oh no, not again. It rained all day yesterday too.

Rained is the simple past tense. We use the simple past to talk about actions or situations in the past.

• I enjoyed the party very much.  Mr. Brown died ten years ago.
• When I lived in Athens, I worked in a bank.

Very often the simple past ends in -ed.

• We invited them to our party, but they decided not to come.
• The police stopped me on my way home last night.
• She passed her exam because she studied very hard.

But many important verbs are irregular. This means that the simple past does not end in -ed.

leave -> left    we all left the party at 11:30.

go -> went      last month I went to Rome to see a friend of mine.

cost -> cost    This house cost $75,000 in 1980.

The past of the verb be (am / is / are) is was / were.

I / he / she / it was          we / you / they were

I was angry because Tom and Ann were late.

In simple past questions and negatives we use did / didn't + the base form (do / open, etc.)

 

it rained       did it rain?      it didn't rain.

• Ann: Did you go out last night, Tom?
• Tom: Yes, I went to the movies. But I didn't enjoy it.
• When did Mrs. Johnson die?
• What did you do over the weekend?
• We didn't invite her to the party, so she didn't come.
• Why didn't you call me on Tuesday?

Note that we normally use did / didn't with have.

• Did you have time to write the letter?
• I didn't have enough money to buy anything to eat.

But we do not use did with the verb be (was / were).

• Why were you so angry?   Was Mark at work yesterday?
• They weren't able to come because they were very busy.