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
Hello. Can I use past for the next case?
> I played football for five years.
I want to say that I played football maybe ten, maybe more years ago. Not the last five years. Somewhere in the past, but totally around five years.
Hello Emaximus,
You can say this sentence but it means something different. 'For' here tells us how long you played football so the sentence tells us that you played football in the past and do not now and that your playing career lasted five years.
I think the best way to express what you want, if I've understood correctly, would be this:
Peter
The LearnEnglish Team
Under the heading 'Questions and Negatives' why is the auxiliary 'did' used in the first four examples, but not in the last two examples? Could you please explain the grammar rules for this difference? Thank you.
Hello JJ53,
This is because those are subject questions. Please see our Question forms and subject/object questions page for an explanation of this. If it's still not clear after you read that page, please don't hesitate to ask us again.
All the best,
Kirk
The LearnEnglish Team
Good afternoon!
Would You be so kind to help me with one question?
There's one piece of conversation, it's from the book "Essential English for Foreign Students" by C. E. Eckersley
"...The man couldn't answer for laughing. He laughed until the tears came into his eyes. Then he caught hold of the porter and said:"Did you see those two fellows get into the train and leave me here?"
"Yes, I saw them."
"Well, I was the one who was going to London; they only came here to see me off!"...
"Did you see those two fellows get into the train and leave me here?"This sentence here in the form of question makes me somehow feel confused. Why did the author use here"get"and "leave"? Is it because of "Did"? Can we paraphrase this sentence?
Thank You very much!
Hello alotar,
We often use a bare infinitive form in a clause after a verb of perception. Here, 'did you see' is the verb of perception (others are 'hear', 'watch', etc.) and then 'get' and 'leave' are the bare infinitives in the clause 'those two fellows get into the train and leave me here'.
It's also possible to use an -ing form -- in this case, 'get into' would be 'getting into' and 'leave' would be 'leaving'. The difference is that the bare infinitive form suggests we saw the action from beginning to end, whereas the -ing form focuses on the action as it was happening.
All the best,
Kirk
The LearnEnglish Team
Hello,
Sir is it right to say " I graduated last year"? And can we say this in any other way?
And sir please tell me about the tenses using which we can talk about specific times like in present, past and the future.
Thanks in advance
Hello SahilK,
It's perfectly fine to say I graduated last year. You could also say I got my degree last year or I finished university last year.
The verb system in English, including various tenses and aspects, is very complicated and not something we can explain in a quick comment! However, we have two grammar sections (here and here) which cover this area in a lot of depth with explanations, examples and practice tasks.
Best wishes,
Peter
The LearnEnglish Team
Hi,
I would like to quote the first part of a passage as below:
"Up until the 1960s, not many British people had flown abroad for their holidays. Although the idea was attractive, flying was still too expensive for most people. The only choice people HAD WAS to go to British resorts. Instead of ...."
I try to explain words "HAD WAS" in above sentence, but I can't. What is its grammar structure or something like that? Please, help me understand it clearly.
Thank you!
Best,
David
Hi davidnh,
Simplifying the sentence helps to make this clear, I think. We can simplify the sentence as follows:
You can see that the subject here is 'The only choice'. All we need to do now is to add the qualifying phrase:
The sentence has the same structure as before but now the subject is 'The only choice people had'.
Best wishes,
Peter
The LearnEnglish Team
Pages