Level: beginner
With most verbs, the past tense is formed by adding –ed:
| called | liked | wanted | worked |
But there are a lot of irregular past tense forms in English. Here are the most common irregular verbs in English, with their past tense forms:
| Base form | Past tense |
|---|---|
| be begin break bring buy build choose come cost cut do draw drive eat feel find get give go have hear hold keep know leave lead let lie lose make mean meet pay put run say sell send set sit speak spend stand take teach tell think understand wear win write |
was/were began broke brought bought built chose came cost cut did drew drove ate felt found got gave went had heard held kept knew left led let lay lost made meant met paid put ran said sold sent set sat spoke spent stood took taught told thought understood wore won wrote |
We use the past tense to talk about:
- something that happened once in the past:
I met my wife in 1983.
We went to Spain for our holidays.
They got home very late last night.
- something that happened several times in the past:
When I was a boy, I walked a mile to school every day.
We swam a lot while we were on holiday.
They always enjoyed visiting their friends.
- something that was true for some time in the past:
I lived abroad for ten years.
He enjoyed being a student.
She played a lot of tennis when she was younger.
- we often use expressions with ago with the past simple:
I met my wife a long time ago.
- Past simple 1
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- Past simple 2
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Past simple questions and negatives
We use did to make questions with the past simple:
Did she play tennis when she was younger?
Did you live abroad?
When did you meet your wife?
Where did you go for your holidays?
But questions with who often don't use did:
Who discovered penicillin?
Who wrote Don Quixote?
- Past simple questions 1
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- Past simple questions 2
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We use didn't (did not) to make negatives with the past simple:
They didn't go to Spain this year.
We didn't get home until very late last night.
I didn't see you yesterday.
- Past simple negatives 1
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- Past simple negatives 2
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Level: intermediate
Past simple and hypotheses
We can also use the past simple to refer to the present or future in hypotheses (when we imagine something). See these pages:
Comments
How can we use Past Simple without a specific time reference in the past?
I am really confused,as i have come across some native speakers using Past simple without time reference in the past,
Please help me to clear this doubt.
Thanks in Advance
Hello Abdul Azeez Ibrahim,
It's very common for the past simple to be used without a specific time reference and it is perfectly correct to do so.
All the best,
Kirk
The LearnEnglish Team
Hi,
I came across this sentence "The hike was one of the best hikes I've ever done." Correct me if I am wrong, I am guessing "was", was used, because the hike was an event of the past.
Would it be correct to say "The hike IS one of the best hikes I've ever done.", to mean that at present / right now / currently, you find this hike one of the best hikes you have ever done?
And say 5 years down the road, you will have gone for many more fulfilling hikes, and so this current hike will no longer be seen as one of the best. Then you use the sentence "The hike was one of the best hikes I've ever done." to mean that at some point in the past, you did see it as one of the best hikes, but you no longer feel so.
Thank you.
Hi Piglet,
Both present and past can be used here and both mean the same as the present perfect (I've ever done) makes it clear that you are referring to the whole of your life up to the present.
If you want to show that the statement is no longer true then you need to use a past perfect: That hike was the best I had ever done.
Peter
The LearnEnglish Team
What's the difference between 'I have lived here for 20 years' and 'I lived here for 20 years'?
Hello kennyMcCormik300
'I have lived here for 20 years' = You still live in the same place now.
(We use the present perfect for actions that started in the past but continue to the present moment.)
'I lived here for 20 years' = You lived in that place in the past. That time is finished and now you live in a different place.
(We use the past simple for actions that finished in the past.)
Hope that helps.
Best wishes
Jo
LearnEnglish Team
Hello
what tense are these
I had a car- past perfect/ simple past
I have a car
I bought a CD that had a famous singer's songs
Hi Samin,
Here are the tenses of those sentences:
Best wishes,
Jonathan
The LearnEnglish Team
Hi, Would you give the difference in meaning and its (grammatical) usage of "Before and Ago", please! Thank you.
Hi rajeshvr,
Ago is an adverb. It tells us the distance in time from the present moment to another event. When you use ago you need to include a time reference, which can be a number or a description:
Before is a flexible word. It can be a preposition, a conjunction or an adverb. When it describes location rather than time it can also be an adjective. We use before to say that an event happened earlier in time than another. Whereas ago relates an action to the present, before simply relates one action to another.. With before we do not have to specify the length of time we are talking about, though we may:
Peter
The LearnEnglish Team
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