Presentation of Simple Past

the

simple

past tense

wHAT IS?

The simple past tense, in English, is used to represent an action/event that took place in the past. With many verbs, the simple past tense is formed by adding an ‘ed’ or a ‘d’ to the end of the base verb.

Definition

According to the Cambridge Dictionary, is defined as “the form of a verb used to describe an action that happened before the present time and is no longer happening. It is usually made by adding -ed.” The Collins Dictionary defines the ‘simple past tense’ as “a tense used to refer to the past.” The Macmillan Dictionary defines the simple past tense as “the tense used to talk about habitual actions, behaviour, or situations that happened or existed before now.”

Structure

+info

Learning the structure of the simple past tense can be made simple if you analyse how the tense is used in the positive, negative, interrogative and negative interrogative formats. Look at the table below to have a better understanding of the same.

Rules and Points to Remember When Using the Simple Past Tense

When conjugating a verb in the simple past tense, there are a few points you have to bear in mind. Conjugating regular verbs – In order to present the main verb in the sentence, you just have to add ‘-ed’ to the end of the regular verb and ‘-d’ to the end of a regular verb which ends with an ‘e’. For example: Reach – reached kick – kicked walk – walked confess – confessed work –worked

CONCLUSION

What Do You Use the Simple Past Tense For?

The simple past tense can be used to,

• Refer to an action or event that happened in the past
• Speak about something that was true for some time in the past
• Explain something that happened more than once in the past