Past Simple

Use the past simple to talk about actions and situations that are finished.

David and I trained for the marathon last year.

We often say when the action happened, e.g. in (+year/month), on (+day) or at (+time).

The first modern Oliympics were in 1896.
I watched a great documentary on Sunday.
We arrived at two o'clock.

The past form of the verb be is was or were.

We were here last night.
I was not at the school this morning.

With other verbs, we use just the main verb in affirmative past simple statements. Regular past simple vers add -ed to infinitive.

train - trained, watch - watched

The past simple verb does not change , i.e. it is the sane after I, you, he, she, it, we and they.

! Note these spelling changes:

• Verbs ending in -e, add -d: die - died, live - lived
• Verbs ending in vowel + consonant, double the consonant and add -ed: stop - stopped.
• Verbs ending in consonant + -y, change -y to -ied: study - studied, marry - married.

Many common verbs in the past simple are irregular.

Use did to form past simple negatives and questions.

The race did not start on time.

Did she win the London Marathon?

Time Expressions

We often use time expressions with the past simple, e.g. ago, last night (week/ month/ year), yesterday.

We moved to this house two years ago.