Past Simple: Talking About What Happened
Regular and irregular past forms, negatives, questions — and the irregular verbs worth learning first.
Past simple describes finished actions at a finished time: yesterday, last week, in 2019.
Regular verbs: add -ed
work → worked, play → played, want → wanted
Spelling notes:
- ends in -e → add -d: like → liked
- consonant + -y → -ied: study → studied
- short vowel + consonant → double it: stop → stopped
-ed has three pronunciations
The spelling never changes, but the sound does — and using the wrong one is one of the most audible learner errors.
| Sound | After | Examples |
|---|---|---|
| /t/ | voiceless sounds: k, p, s, sh, ch, f | worked, stopped, watched |
| /d/ | voiced sounds and vowels | played, called, lived |
| /ɪd/ | only after t or d | wanted, decided, started |
Only that last group adds a syllable. Worked is one syllable, not two; wanted is genuinely two.
Irregular verbs
There is no rule — these must be learned. The most frequent ones:
| Base | Past | Base | Past |
|---|---|---|---|
| go | went | give | gave |
| have | had | find | found |
| do | did | think | thought |
| say | said | tell | told |
| see | saw | leave | left |
| take | took | feel | felt |
| come | came | buy | bought |
| make | made | write | wrote |
| get | got | run | ran |
| know | knew | begin | began |
A small group doesn't change at all: put, cut, let, cost, hit, shut, read. Only context tells you the tense — though read changes its sound (/riːd/ → /red/) while keeping its spelling.
Good news: the past form is the same for every subject. I went, she went, they went.
Negatives and questions use "did"
Here the main verb goes back to its base form — this is the classic error.
- ✅ I didn't go. (not "didn't went")
- ✅ Did you see it? (not "Did you saw")
Why the base form — all the past meaning sits in did, so the main verb doesn't repeat it. One tense marker per sentence is the rule.
The same applies with a question word: Where did you go? · What did she say?
But when who or what is the subject, did disappears again: Who told you? (not "Who did tell you")
Was and were
The verb be is different again — no did needed.
- I / he / she / it was
- you / we / they were
- I wasn't at home. / Were you there?
Time expressions
Past simple usually appears with a finished time: yesterday, last night, two days ago, in 2019, when I was a child.
Note ago comes after the period: three weeks ago, never "ago three weeks".
Telling a story
Past simple is the backbone of any story — what was going on around those events is the past continuous's job — and the sequence words carry the reader through: first, then, after that, a bit later, in the end.
How was the weekend?
A: We went to the coast on Saturday. The train was late, so we missed the boat.
B: Oh no. What did you do?
A: We waited for two hours, then we found a café and had lunch. In the end it was a nice day.
Every verb is past simple, every event is finished, and did appears only in the question.
Try it yourself
The quiz below targets the "didn't went" trap and the was/were split.