THE

PAST SIMPLE

By LadyW

FORM
Verb + -ed or Irregular verb
e.g. Work + -ed : Worked
He worked yesterday

Went (irr. form of go)

He went home after work

USE
You use the Present Simple in the next situations:
Finished events in the past with no connection to the present:
e.g. Leonardo painted the Mona Lisa. / The Vikings invaded Britain.
With a finished time word
(last, ago, date (e.g. in 2003), yesterday, when (e.g. at 2 o'clock):
e.g. I went to the cinema yesterday. / We visited Japan in 2007.
For stories / lists of events / repeated actions in the past:
e.g. He went to a caf, sat down and lit a cigarette. / Yesterday I went to
the library, met a friend for lunch, and played tennis.
Details of news:
e.g. I've hurt my leg. I fell off a ladder when I was painting my bedroom. /
I've been on holiday. I went to Spain and Portugal.

HOW?
POSITIVE

NEGATIVE

Verb + -ed
or
Irregular verb

Yes/No questions:
Did not (didnt) + verb Did + subject + verb
No irregular verbs!
Wh questions:
Wh-word + did +
subject + verb

I played yesterday
I ran home after dark

QUESTION

I didnt play yesterday Did you play

yesterday?
Why did you run
home after dark?

SUMMARY
The past simple is used when something has
finished in the past, with no connection to the
present
The past simple is used when theres a clear
indication of time (last, ago, date, yesterday,
when); so when something happened
The past simple is used for stories, with lists of
events and for repeated actions in the past
The past simple is used when details of news
are being mentioned