THE SIMPLE PAST TENSE
The Simple Past tense mainly describes an action that has already happened and that does not occur anymore. The action started and finished at some point in the past. In the Simple Past the verb is not flexed in any person, repeating the same form in all of them.
Sarah graduated in 1997.
Ryan and Sonia broke up last week.
It rained a lot last night.
The good News is that we don´t need to worry about flexing the verbs in the simple past.
I - worked – studied – broke – brought – ate
YOU - worked – studied – broke – brought – ate
HE - worked – studied – broke – brought – ate
SHE - worked – studied – broke – brought – ate
IT - worked – studied – broke – brought – ate
WE - worked – studied – broke – brought – ate
YOU - worked – studied – broke – brought – ate
THEY- worked – studied – broke – brought – ate
STRUCTURE
SUBJECT + VERB + COMPLEMENT
AFFIRMATIVE
PETER CALLED HIS MOTHER TO WISH HER HAPPY BIRTHDAY YESTERDAY
WE FORGOT TO BUY OUR PLANE TICKETS DURING THE SALE LAST WEEK.
NEGATIVE
PETER DIDN’T CALL HIS MOTHER...
WE DIDN’T FORGET TO BUY ...
INTERROGATIVE
DID PETER CALL HIS MOTHER...?
DID WE FORGET TO BUY OUR ...?
As you can see in the examples above, there are two types of verbs we need to consider in the simple past which are the REGULAR and IRREGULAR verbs.
Common adverbial expressions
Yesterday
Ago
In the past
Back when..
In 1999
Last year/week
The irregular verbs do not follow the same pattern as the regular ones, so we must memorize their forms in the simple past.
The good News is that we can group some verbs because they have a similar form in the simple past.
