THE SIMPLE PAST

The Simple Past is used to talk about actions or situations in the past. It is also called Past Simple.

These words tell you what tense you have to use. For the Simple Past these are expressions of time in the past.

yesterday
last week
a month ago
in 2012

HOW TO FORM THE SIMPLE PAST

- with regular verbs: infinitive + -ed 

- with irregular verbs: 2nd column of the table of the irregular verbs

Affirmative sentences:

Use the same form of the verb every time regardless the subject.

regular verbs	irregular verbs
I played football.	I went to the supermarket.

---

Negative sentences:

Use the auxiliary did (Simple Past of do) every time regardless the subject.

regular verbs	irregular verbs
I did not play football.	I did not go to the supermarket.

NOTE: Short forms in negative sentences in the Simple Past are used quite often.

regular verbs	irregular verbs
I didn't play football.	I didn't go to the supermarket.

---

Questions:

Use the auxiliary did (Simple Past of do) every time regardless the subject.

regular verbs	irregular verbs
Did you play football?	Did I go to the supermarket?

SIMPLE PAST - SPELLING

You have to know all forms of the irregular verbs very well. For the Simple Past you need the form of the verb which can be found in the 2nd column of the table of the irregular verbs.
go - went - gone

Add -ed with regular verbs.

regular verbs
infinitive + -ed

Sometimes the are exceptions in spelling when adding -ed.

1) consonant after short, stressed vowel at the end of the word

Double the consonant.
stop – stopped
swap - swapped

If the consonant is not stressed, we do not double it:
benefit - benefited (Here we stress the first 'e', not the 'i'.) In British English we double one -l at the end of the word:
travel - travelled

---

2) one -e at the end of the word

Add only -d.
love – loved
save – saved

3) verbs ending in -y

verbs ending in 'y' preceded by a vowel (a, e, i, o, u): Add -ed.

Example:
I play - he played

verbs ending in 'y' preceded by a consonant: Change 'y' to 'i' Then add -ed.

Example:
I hurry - he hurried

Now practice with some exercises:

Exercise 1

Exercise 2

Exercise 3

Exercise 4

Exercise 5

Exercise 6

Exercise 7