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 Slava B,
The correct form here is past simple because the action is complete/finished. You stopped yourself and so the brushing is entirely in the past, with no present result. You might use the present perfect if you use a verb which has a clear present result:
I hope that's helpful. I'm afraid we don't provide corrections of writing. It is possible to use a range of tenses, including perfect tenses, in stories such as this. The key is whether the action is finished (takes place in a finished time frame) or not and has a present result or not.
Best wishes,
Peter
The LearnEnglish Team
Hello team,
I've just encountered this sentence this morning: "I didn't know you smoked". The situation here is the speaker realises her friend smoke. Because her friend still smokes at the present time so I think it must be "I didn't know you smoke". And is it different with "I don't know you smoke"?
Can you explain it for me?
Thanks in advance.
Hello Quynh Nhu,
Both 'smokes' and 'smoked' are fine here. If you say 'smokes' then it must be true that the person still smokes. If you say 'smoked' then you could be talking about something which was true when you found out but is no longer true now (they stopped smoking at some point) or something which is still true. The difference is perhaps clearer with a different example:
You can read more about the use of various verb forms on these pages:
reporting and summarising
reporting verbs and different clauses
reported speech 1
reported speech 2
reporting questions
Best wishes,
Peter
The LearnEnglish Team
Hi Sir,
It would be better to keep listening system for corrections.
Hello Ilma Hasan,
Do you mean that you would prefer to listen to the answers rather than see them? That's a great idea! I'm afraid, however, that our exercises aren't designed in a way that we can do that. I'll make a note of it for the future, though. Thanks for your feedback.
All the best,
Kirk
The LearnEnglish Team
Please advice how can I use questions in the past:
-She asked me about am I want to join the membership.
or
-She asked me about I am want to join the membership
I tried to meant, if the sentences is in the past, still have to take the question or not?
thanks
Hi
You enquiry is related to speech. Here, you're using the reported speech. The proper form of your sentence would be, "She asked me if I wanted to join the membership". Since it is not a direct question, a question mark (?) is not used.
Hello kz45277,
I'm afraid that neither of these sentences is grammatically correct. These are what are called reported questions. As you can see on the page I linked to, reported yes/no questions use the words 'if' or 'whether' before the question clause. For example, for your sentence, this would be:
You'll notice that I also rephrased your question clause, since we don't say 'join a membership'. I'm not sure which is more appropriate since I don't know the context of this question.
I hope this helps you.
All the best,
Kirk
The LearnEnglish Team
Hi Sir
Could you please explain this sentence for me?
'You haven’t changed at all'
Why do we you present perfect here?
Hello kidasn,
This sentence could be used when you see an old friend after a long time. You remember the way your friend was in the past and find that she is still the same kind of person. Since you are talking about a time period that includes both the past and the present, the present perfect is the most appropriate form.
Does that make sense?
All the best,
Kirk
The LearnEnglish Team
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