Past Simple: statements

 

Past Simple is a past tense. We use Past Simple to say what we did in the past. We use it for finished actions:

• I lived in Madrid last year.
• She went on holiday last week.
• I studied music at school.

 

1. In Past Simple, the verb ‘be’ has two forms — was and were:

 

Singular	Plural
I was You were He/She/It was	We were You were They were

• Jack and Tom were late this morning.
• It was cold yesterday.
• She was sad last week.

 

2. In Past Simple, we add -ed’ to regular verbs:

• To work  → I worked in a shop last year.
• To play → I played basketball on Monday.
• To cook →She cooked fish yesterday.

 

Spelling rules: ‘-ed’

 

a) For regular verbs ending in ‘-e’, add  ‘-d’:

• To live → John lived in Brazil.
• To close → She closed the door.

 

b) For regular verbs ending in one consonant + ‘-y’, change the ‘-y’ to “-ied”:

• To study → They studied German.
• To try → I tried to be kind.

 

c) For regular verbs that end in one vowel + one consonant, double the consonant and add ‘-ed’:

• To stop → They stopped the car.
• To plan → Nick planned a business trip.

 

Note: We do not double the consonants ‘y’ or ‘w’: To play → She played piano. To row → He rowed 3km yesterday. We do not double the consonant when the last syllable is not stressed: To listen → I listened to the radio. To visit → Margaret visited her mother on Tuesday.

 

3. Some verbs in English are irregular. They have different past forms:

 

break → broke	have → had
go →  went	take → took
leave → left	know → knew
make → made	send → sent
write → wrote	run → ran

 

Note: For the full list of irregular verbs, see the Pre-intermediate course, Verbs: irregular.