The simple past is a verb tense that is used to describe an action that happened in the past. It is often used with a time expression, such as „yesterday“ or „last week.“
Examples:
- I went to the store.
- She played tennis.
- They visited their grandparents.
- We watched a movie.
To form the simple past, you add -ed to the base form of the verb. For regular verbs, this is easy to do. Just add -ed to the end of the verb. For example:
- walk = walked
- talk = talked
- wash = washed
- fix = fixed
For irregular verbs, the simple past is a little more difficult because the spelling of the verb changes. For example:
- buy = bought
- catch = caught
- fly = flew
- ride = rode
Here are some more examples of irregular verbs in the simple past:
- begin = began
- bring = brought
- build = built
- burn = burned
- choose = chose
- do = did
- drink = drank
- drive = drove
- eat = ate
- fall = fell
- feel = felt
- find = found
- get = got
- give = gave
- go = went
- grow = grew
- have = had
- hear = heard
- know = knew
- learn = learned
- leave = left
- lose = lost
- make = made
- mean = meant
- meet = met
- pay = paid
- quit = quit
- read = read
- run = ran
- say = said
- see = saw
- sell = sold
- send = sent
- sing = sang
- sit = sat
- sleep = slept
- speak = spoke
- spend = spent
- swim = swam
- take = took
- teach = taught
- tell = told
- think = thought
- understand = understood
- wake up = woke up
- wear = wore
- win = won
- write = wrote
