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SIMPLE PAST

BE CAREFUL! The simple past in English may look like a tense in your own language, but the meaning may be different.

1. Simple past, form

Regular verbs: base+ed
e.g. walked, showed, watched, played, smiled, stopped

Irregular verbs: see list in verbs

Simple past, be, have, do:

Subject Verb
Be
Have
Do

I
was
had
did

You
were
had
did

He, she, it
was
had
did

We
were
had
did

You
were
had
did

They
were
had
did



Affirmative
a. I was in Japan last year
b. She had a headache yesterday.
c. We did our homework last night.

Negative and interrogative
Note: For the negative and interrogative simple past form of "do" as an ordinary verb, use the auxiliary "do", e.g. We didn't do our homework last night. The negative of "have" in the simple past is usually formed using the auxiliary "do", but sometimes by simply adding not or the contraction "n't".
The interrogative form of "have" in the simple past normally uses the auxiliary "do".

They weren't in Rio last summer.
We hadn't any money.

We didn't have time to visit the Eiffel Tower.

We didn't do our exercises this morning.

Were they in Iceland last January?

Did you have a bicycle when you were a boy?

Did you do much climbing in Switzerland?
Simple past, regular verbs

Affirmative

Subject
verb + ed


I
washed


Negative

Subject
did not
infinitive without to

They
didn't
visit ...

Interrogative