Navigate the Simple Past Tense | Learn Tenses in English
Welcome back! Today, we’re taking a trip down memory lane. We’ve covered how things happen generally and what’s happening right now, but what about things that are already over and done with? That’s where the Simple Past Tense comes in. In American English, we use the simple past to talk about completed actions. Whether it happened five minutes ago or five hundred years ago, this is the tense you’ll need. Let’s break it down so your readers can master it in no time! Simple past tense 1. The Active Voice: Who Did It? In the active voice, the subject is the one who performed the action in the past. Positive Statements: For regular verbs, we usually add -ed (walked, played). For irregular verbs, the form changes (ran, ate, saw). Negatives: We use the helper verb did not (or the contraction didn't ) followed by the base form of the verb. Pro Tip: Once you use "did," the main verb stays simple. We say "I didn't eat ," not "I didn't ate ." Qu...