Past Simple

1. Study this example:

Tom: Look! It’s raining again.
Ann: Oh no, not again. It rained all day yesterday too.
Rained is the past simple tense. We use the past simple to talk about actions in the past.

- I very much enjoyed the party.
- Mr. Edward died ten year ago.
- When I lived in Manchester, I worked in a bank.

2. Very often the past simple ends in –ed:

- We invited them to our party but they decided not to come.
- The Police stopped me on my way home last night.
- She passed her examination because she studied very hard.

For spelling rules see this.

But many important verbs are irregular. This mean that the past simple does not end in –ed.
For example:
Leave – left we all left the party at 11 o’clock.
Go – went Yesterday I went to London to see a friend of mine.
Cost – cost This house cost $35,000 in 1980

The past of verb be (am/are/is) is was/were:

I/he/she/it was
We/you/they were

I was angry because Tom and Ann were late,

For list of irregular verb see this.

3. In the past simple questions and negatives we use did/didn’t + the infinitive (do/open/rain etc)

It rained - did it rain? - It didn’t rain

- Ann: Did you go out last night, Tom?
  Tom: Yes, I went to the cinema. But I didn’t enjoy the film.
- When did Mr. Edward die?
- What did you do at the week-end?
- We didn’t invite her to the party, so she didn’t come.
- Why didn’t you phone me on Tuesday?

Note that we normally use did/didn’t with have:

Did you have time to write the letter?
I didn’t have enough money to buy anything to eat.

But we do not use did with the verb be (was/were)

Why were you so angry?
They weren’t able to come because they were very busy.
Was Tom at work yesterday?

For the past simple see also unit 12, 20, 21.

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