Past Simple Tense – Easy Lesson for Beginners

The Past Simple tense is used to talk about actions that happened and finished in the past. It is one of the most important tenses in English, especially for telling stories or describing past events. This lesson explains the Past Simple in a simple and clear way for beginners.

🟦 When Do We Use the Past Simple?

1. Completed actions in the past

• I visited my friend yesterday.
• She studied English last night.

2. Past habits

• He walked to school every day.
• They watched cartoons every morning.

3. A sequence of past events

• He woke up, got dressed, and left home.

🟦 How to Form the Past Simple

✔ Affirmative Form

Subject + past verb + object

• I went to school.
• They played football.
• She watched a movie.

✔ Negative Form

Subject + did not (didn’t) + base verb

• I didn’t go to school.
• He didn’t eat breakfast.
• We didn’t watch TV.

✔ Question Form

Did + subject + base verb + … ?

• Did you go to school?
• Did she watch the movie?
• Did they play football?

🟦 Regular Verbs (add -ed)

Base Verb	Past Simple
play	played
watch	watched
visit	visited
clean	cleaned

🟦 Irregular Verbs (change completely)

Base Verb	Past Simple
go	went
see	saw
eat	ate
drink	drank
have	had

🟦 Example Paragraph

Yesterday was a great day. I woke up early and ate my breakfast. Then I went to the park with my friends. We played games, took pictures, and had a lot of fun. In the evening, I watched a movie and relaxed at home.

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🟢 Exercise – Practice the Past Simple

A. Put the verbs in brackets into the Past Simple:

1. I ______ (visit) my grandmother yesterday.
2. She ______ (not go) to school last Monday.
3. We ______ (play) football in the park.
4. They ______ (eat) pizza for dinner.
5. ______ you ______ (watch) the new movie?

B. Rewrite the sentences in negative:

1. He went to the party.
2. They watched TV last night.
3. She cooked dinner.

C. Make questions:

1. You saw the teacher.
2. They traveled to Spain.
3. He studied English.

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