The Past Simple tense

Trebaće ti 3 minuta da pročitaš ovaj članak.

Past Simple Tense in English

The Past Simple tense is used to talk about actions or events that happened in the past. These actions are finished and usually connected to a specific time. For example:

  • “I visited Paris last year.” (a specific time in the past)
  • “She called her friend yesterday.” (a finished action)

Positive:

  1. I downloaded a new app yesterday.
  2. She finished her homework last night.
  3. They went to a concert last weekend.

Negative:

  1. I didn’t call him last week.
  2. He didn’t play any games yesterday.
  3. We didn’t watch the football match.

Question:

  1. Did you see the new movie?
  2. Did she cook dinner last night?
  3. Did they visit the museum on Saturday?

How to form the Past Simple:

  • Positive: Use the past form of the verb. Regular verbs end in -ed (e.g., walk → walked). Irregular verbs have different forms (e.g., go → went).
  • Negative: Use did not (didn’t) + base verb.
  • Question: Use did at the beginning of the sentence + base verb.

Table of Forms

PersonPositive 👍Negative 👎Question 🤔
II watched a movie.I didn’t watch a movie.Did I watch a movie?
YouYou studied English.You didn’t study English.Did you study English?
HeHe played football.He didn’t play football.Did he play football?
SheShe visited London.She didn’t visit London.Did she visit London?
ItIt worked yesterday.It didn’t work yesterday.Did it work yesterday?
WeWe traveled to Spain.We didn’t travel to Spain.Did we travel to Spain?
TheyThey cleaned the house.They didn’t clean the house.Did they clean the house?

Irregular verbs

If a verb is irregular, we have to know the form of the verb in the past tense.
Here’s a list of the most common irregular verbs in English:

Open this list to see the verbs
  1. Be
    • Sentence: She was very happy to see her friends.
    • They were stuck at the airport for three hours.
  2. Begin
    • Sentence: The meeting began at 9 a.m. sharp.
  3. Break
    • Sentence: He broke his phone while running.
  4. Bring
    • Sentence: She brought her favorite book to the library.
  5. Buy
    • Sentence: I bought a new pair of shoes yesterday.
  6. Choose
    • Sentence: They chose the red car over the blue one.
  7. Come
    • Sentence: He came home late last night.
  8. Do
    • Sentence: She did her homework before dinner.
  9. Drink
    • Sentence: I drank a cup of coffee this morning.
  10. Drive
    • Sentence: He drove his car to work.
  11. Eat
    • Sentence: We ate dinner at a fancy restaurant.
  12. Fall
    • Sentence: She fell off her bike while riding.
  13. Feel
    • Sentence: He felt sick after eating too much.
  14. Find
    • Sentence: She found her lost keys under the sofa.
  15. Get
    • Sentence: They got a new puppy for Christmas.
  16. Give
    • Sentence: He gave her a beautiful bouquet.
  17. Go
    • Sentence: We went to the beach last weekend.
  18. Have
    • Sentence: I had a great time at the party.
  19. Hear
    • Sentence: She heard a strange noise coming from the basement.
  20. Know
    • Sentence: I knew the answer to the question.
  21. Leave
    • Sentence: They left the office early to catch a train.
  22. Make
    • Sentence: She made a delicious cake for the party.
  23. Meet
    • Sentence: He met his friends at the coffee shop.
  24. Read
    • Sentence: She read an interesting book over the weekend.
  25. Write
    • Sentence: He wrote a letter to his best friend.

Past Simple: Quiz

Click NEXT to start a short quiz to test your knowledge.

 
Započni kviz

#1. She ___ a presentation about the new app last week.

Prethodno
Dalje

#2. They ___ to the tech conference in Berlin last month.

Prethodno
Dalje

#3. I ___ my team about the deadline yesterday.

Prethodno
Dalje

#4. We ___ a lot of new people at the networking event.

Prethodno
Dalje

#5. He ___ the email to the wrong address.

Prethodno
Dalje

#6. They ___ in the city center after the flight.

Prethodno
Dalje

#7. She ___ a lot of pictures during the party.

Prethodno
Dalje

#8. We ___ the latest tech news online last night.

Prethodno
Dalje

#9. He ___ a new idea for the project yesterday.

Prethodno
Dalje

#10. I ___ the wrong gate at the airport.

Prethodno
Završi

Rezultati:

Trebaće ti 3 minuta da pročitaš ovaj članak.

Trebaće ti 3 minuta da pročitaš ovaj članak.

Additional Quizzes

Here are some great tests you can use to check if you understand this topic well:

1: https://www.englishclub.com/grammar/verb-tenses_past_quiz.php?

2: https://www.perfect-english-grammar.com/past-simple-exercise-8.html

3: https://learnenglish.britishcouncil.org/grammar/english-grammar-reference/past-simple

Here’s a quiz to test regular and irregular verbs.