How to Form the Past Simple

Regular Verbs

We form the positive form of the past simple with the Bare infinitive + ed.

Play – played              Ask – Asked

We form questions and negatives with did.

The form is the same for all pronouns.

The form the past simple of regular verbs is shown in the table below.

Yes/No Question	Did you play football last night?
Short Answers	Yes, I did.  No, I didn’t.
Question word question	What did you play last night?
Positive Sentence	I played tennis.
Negative Sentence	I didn’t play tennis.

Irregular Verbs

Many verbs in English are irregular. An irregular verb is a verb that does not form the past tense with: verb + ed.

Irregular Verbs are usually the most common verbs.

Below are some examples of common irregular verbs.

Bare Infinitive	Past
Go	Went
Do	Did
Say	Said
Take	Took
Have	Had
Catch	Caught
Buy	Bought
Leave	Left

Click on this link for a longer list of irregular verbs

The structure of questions and sentences with irregular verbs is the same as with regular verbs.

We form questions and negatives with did.

The form is the same for all pronouns.

The form the past simple with irregular verbs is shown in the table below.

Yes/No Question	Did you go out last night?
Short Answers	Yes, I did.  No, I didn’t.
Question word question	Where did you go last night?
Positive Sentence	I went out last night.
Negative Sentence	I didn’t go out last night.

Click on the links below to learn more about the Past Tenses

The Past Continuous

The Past Perfect Simple

The Past Perfect Continuous

Time Expressions with The Present Perfect

Used to

Used to vs. Would