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
- GapFillTyping_MTYzMjI=
- Past simple 2
- GapFillTyping_MTYzMjM=
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
- ReorderingHorizontal_MTYzMjQ=
- Past simple questions 2
- GapFillTyping_MTYzMjU=
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
- GapFillDragAndDrop_MTYzMjY=
- Past simple negatives 2
- GapFillTyping_MTYzMjc=
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
Suppose, someone eats something for the first time and he was asked, "how is the meal?" In reply, can he ans like this," I liked it" Even if he never ever dislike in the future as well. Or is there any other way to reply?
Hello Marie Scarl,
To the question How is the meal? it is perfectly fine to say I liked it. You could also say It was great or It was very tasty, thank you.
Best wishes,
Peter
The LearnEnglish Team
Hi sir,
just registered a few minutes ago.. and english is my second language. So, l m just a beginner and need your all support and guidance to improve my english.
And if you get any mistakes, even in my texts, do reform me.
Hello Marie Scari,
Welcome to LearnEnglish! I hope we'll be able to help you with your English and I hope you'll soon see good progress. To start you off, I recommend you visit our Getting Started section, which describes the site and the material we have, and gives you many suggestions as to how to use the site most effectively.
After that, please take a look at our Frequently Asked Questions page. This has many tips on how to improve your English, including how to improve specific aspects such as speaking, listening, vocabulary and so on.
We try to answer as many questions as we can in the comments sections of our pages. I'm afraid we can't correct the comments, however, as we are a small team here and have many thousands of users. We do reply to comments where appropriate, of course.
Best wishes,
Peter
The LearnEnglish Team
Hi.
In this sentence:
Did she play tennis when she was younger?
Can i wrote this way:
Did she played tennis when she was younger?
Thanks in advance.
Hello Ricardo,
No, I'm afraid that's not correct.
All the best,
Kirk
The LearnEnglish Team
Hi I'm raising a quick question in between past simple and past continuous tenses, and looking for advice.
Two expressions for same case, which one has been used the most? Is the second one inappropriate?
1. I jogged for 30 minutes every day before, but now I don't.
2. I was jogging for 30 minutes every day before, but now I don't.
thank you to help me out
Sophie
Hi 1004sufei,
As you suggest, both of these forms are grammatically possible. I would say that the first (jogged) is the more common. The continuous form (was jogging) cna be used to emphasise the repeated nature of an activity, but here that is already made clear by the time reference (every day) and so is superfluous.
Best wishes,
Peter
The LearnEnglish Team
Thank you Peter and further from that, as I saw 3 sentences have been quoted as examples of past continuous- for something that was happening again and again:
I was practising every day, three times a day.
They were meeting secretly after school.
They were always quarrelling.
all with time references.
do you think they are all superfluous because of existing time references? then these 3 sentences would have no existing value while simple past would be just fine.
I was thinking the continuous tense is used when you like to emphasize the time lasting about some types of verb, like jogging for 30 minutes, quarrelling, meeting and practising.
thank you for further advice
Sophie
Hello 1004sufei,
The sentences would all be fine in the past simple. However, continuous forms often suggest that the action was temporary or interrupted in some way and this may be important to the speaker.
The decision a speaker makes with regard to verb form is often dependent on the speaker's intention and perspective. Very often multiple choices are possible. Looking at very forms without paying attention to the context and the speaker's intention/perspective means that we are not seeing the whole story, as it were.
I think our section on the continuous aspect might be helpful for you. You can find it here.
Best wishes,
Peter
The LearnEnglish Team
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