Past Simple
Regular & irregular verbs for finished past actions.
We use the Past Simple to talk about actions and events that started and finished at a definite time in the past. With regular verbs we form it by adding -ed to the base form: 'work' becomes 'worked' and 'play' becomes 'played'. Spelling sometimes changes: verbs ending in a consonant + y change y to i and add -ed ('study' → 'studied'), and short verbs ending in one vowel + one consonant double the final consonant ('stop' → 'stopped'). Many common verbs are irregular and must be learned by heart, for example 'go' → 'went', 'see' → 'saw', 'have' → 'had', 'make' → 'made', 'come' → 'came' and 'take' → 'took'. To make negatives and questions we use the helper 'did': we say 'I did not (didn't) go' and 'Did you go?', and after 'did' the main verb returns to its base form. The Past Simple is often used with past time markers such as 'yesterday', 'last week', 'two days ago' and 'in 2010'. For example: 'Yesterday I watched a film, but my brother didn't watch it, and our parents went to the cinema.'
Key terms
| Form | Structure | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Affirmative | Subject + V2 (past form) | She worked. / I went. |
| Negative | Subject + didn't + base form | She didn't work. / I didn't go. |
| Question | Did + subject + base form? | Did she work? / Did you go? |
| Base | Past Simple |
|---|---|
| go | went |
| see | saw |
| have | had |
| make | made |
| come | came |
| take | took |
| buy | bought |
| bring | brought |
| teach | taught |
| think | thought |
- 1Choose the verb and time: We want to say what happened: 'I / walk / to school' with the time marker 'yesterday'.
- 2Make the affirmative: 'Walk' is regular, so add -ed: walk becomes walked. The form is the same for every subject.
- 3Add the time marker: Result: 'Yesterday I walked to school.' The marker 'yesterday' confirms past time.
- 4Turn it into a question: Use 'Did' + subject + base form: 'Did you walk to school?' The main verb drops -ed back to 'walk'.
- 1Regular verb: 'Play' is regular: just add -ed to get played, as in 'They played football last Sunday.'
- 2Irregular verb: 'Go' is irregular: it does not take -ed. Its past is 'went', as in 'Our parents went to the cinema.' ('goed' is not a real word.)
- 3How to tell them apart: Regular verbs follow the -ed pattern; irregular verbs like go, see, make and take have special past forms that must be learned by heart.
Do not add -ed to irregular verbs. Forms like 'goed', 'maked', 'buyed' and 'speaked' are wrong; use 'went', 'made', 'bought' and 'spoke'.
After 'didn't' and 'Did', use the base form, never the past form. Write 'didn't go' and 'Did she cook?', not 'didn't went' or 'Did she cooked?'
Do not use 'don't' or 'does' for past time. With markers like 'last night' or 'yesterday', use 'didn't' and 'Did', not 'don't went' or 'Does she cook?'
Watch the spelling of regular verbs: consonant + y changes to -ied (study becomes studied), and short verbs double the final consonant (stop becomes stopped, plan becomes planned).
Rules
- 1Regular verbs add -ed: work → worked, play → played; the form is the same for all subjects.
- 2Spelling: study → studied (consonant + y), stop → stopped (double the final consonant).
- 3Many verbs are irregular and must be memorised: go → went, see → saw, have → had, make → made.
- 4Negatives and questions use 'did' + the base form: 'didn't go', 'Did you go?' (NOT 'didn't went').
- 5Common time markers: yesterday, last night/week/year, two days ago, in 2010.
Practice
10 easy · 10 medium · 10 hard
10 random questions per test