The tense for finished past events: The past simple is the tense you use for an action that started and finished in the past — usually at a definite time (yesterday, last week, in 2019, two years ago).
With a regular verb you do one simple thing: add -ed to the base verb. work → worked, play → played, decide → decided. Many common verbs are irregular and have their own past form you must learn: go → went, see → saw, eat → ate, be → was/were.
- the past simple
- the tense for a completed action at a definite past time
- the base form
- the dictionary form of the verb with no ending (work, play, go)
- a regular verb
- a verb whose past simple is formed by adding -ed (worked, played)
- an irregular verb
- a verb with a special past form you must learn (went, saw, ate, was)
- an auxiliary (helping) verb
- a verb used to build questions and negatives — here, did / didn't
- a time marker
- a word or phrase that fixes the time, e.g. yesterday, last week, ago, in 1998
Why it carries the marks: Almost every story, report, anecdote and "what did you do at the weekend?" answer uses the past simple. Getting the -ed spelling right and choosing the correct irregular form is core Criterion A (Language) accuracy — examiners notice a wrong past form at once. Learn one rule (add -ed) plus a list of irregulars and you unlock most of your past-tense writing.
One form for every person: The good news: in the past simple the verb is the same for every subject — I, you, he, she, it, we, they all use one form. I worked, she worked, they worked. The only verb that changes is be: I/he/she/it → was, you/we/they → were.
Watch the -ed spelling: if the verb already ends in -e, just add -d (live → lived); if it ends in a consonant + y, change the y to i (study → studied); and for many short verbs you double the final consonant (stop → stopped, plan → planned).
| Spelling rule | Base verb | Past simple |
|---|---|---|
| Most verbs: add -ed | work / play / open | worked / played / opened |
| Ends in -e: add -d | live / decide / arrive | lived / decided / arrived |
| Consonant + y → -ied | study / try / carry | studied / tried / carried |
| Double the consonant | stop / plan / travel | stopped / planned / travelled |
| Irregular (learn it) | go / see / eat / have | went / saw / ate / had |
| Use | Structure | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Positive | subject + past form | She visited her cousins. |
| Negative | subject + did not (didn't) + base | She didn't visit her cousins. |
| Question | Did + subject + base …? | Did she visit her cousins? |
| Short answer | Yes, … did. / No, … didn't. | Yes, she did. / No, she didn't. |
After did / didn't, use the BASE verb: did already carries the past meaning, so the main verb goes back to its base form (no -ed, no irregular form). Say "Did you go?" and "I didn't see it" — never "Did you went?" or "I didn't saw it". This is the single most common past-simple mistake.
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Finished, and usually time-stamped: Reach for the past simple whenever the action is over and you can (or could) say when it happened. It tells a story in order, states a finished fact, or reports a past habit. The big clue is a time marker: yesterday, last night, two days ago, in 2020, when I was a child, at the weekend.
Uses of the past simple
- A single completed action — "I called my friend last night."
- A sequence of events in a story — "She woke up, got dressed and left."
- A finished past state — "He was nervous before the exam."
- A past habit or repeated action — "As a child, I played football every day."
- A definite point in the past with a date — "They moved house in 2019."
Past simple — finished & dated
- I saw that film last week.
- We lived in Madrid for three years (we don't now).
- She finished her project yesterday.
Present perfect — no definite time
- I have seen that film (we don't say when).
- We have lived in Madrid (it may still be true).
- She has finished her project (and it's relevant now).
Time marker = past simple: If the sentence has a finished-time word (yesterday, last week, in 2019, ago), choose the past simple, not the present perfect. "I went to Rome last year" is correct; "I have gone to Rome last year" is not.
A short story told in the past simple: Here is a short anecdote built one sentence at a time. Watch how the past simple carries the whole story — regular verbs (decided, packed, travelled, arrived, complained) and irregular ones (was, were, went, saw, ate) sit side by side. Read it once for meaning, then check how each verb is formed.
IB-style task — the past simple in action
A day out, sentence by sentence
- Last summer my family and I decided to visit my grandparents in the countryside.
- We packed our bags on Friday night and travelled there early the next morning by train.
- The journey was long, but the views were beautiful, so nobody complained.
- When we arrived, my grandmother had cooked a huge lunch, and we ate outside in the garden.
- In the evening we went for a walk and saw the sun set over the hills — it was a perfect day.
Steal this for your own story: Pick a finished event, open with a time marker (Last summer / One day / When I was younger), then drive the story with past-simple verbs in order. A handful of regular verbs plus the most common irregulars (was/were, went, saw, did, had, came) covers almost any narrative for the oral or a writing task.
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The slips to watch for: Three mistakes dominate. 1. Putting -ed on an irregular verb ("goed", "seed") instead of the real form (went, saw). 2. Keeping the past form after did/didn't ("Did you went?", "I didn't saw") instead of the base verb. 3. Using the present perfect with a finished-time word ("I have seen it yesterday") when the past simple is required. Compare the correct version with the typical mistake and the fix is obvious.
Correct
- Yesterday I went to the market.
- Did you see the new film?
- I didn't have time to call you.
- We saw them at the concert last week.
Common mistake
- Yesterday I goed to the market. (irregular needs "went")
- Did you saw the new film? (after Did → base "see")
- I didn't had time to call you. (after didn't → base "have")
- We have seen them last week. (finished time → past simple "saw")
Two quick checks before you write: 1. Is the verb regular or irregular? Regular → add -ed; irregular → use the learned form (went, saw, had, came). 2. Is there a did/didn't? If so, the main verb is the base form with no ending. And if the sentence has a finished-time word, stay in the past simple.