Past Simple: Telling Stories of Yesterday
The Past Simple tense is like a time machine. It helps us talk about actions that happened and finished in the past.
How to Form the Past Simple
For most verbs, just add “-ed” to the end.
- Example: walk – walked, play – played, visit – visited
Some verbs are irregular and change their spelling completely.
- Examples: eat – ate, go – went, see – saw
When to Use the Past Simple
We use the past simple for actions that:
-
Happened at a specific time in the past:
- I watched a movie yesterday.
- She graduated from college last year.
-
Happened repeatedly in the past, but don’t happen anymore:
- We played soccer every day when we were kids.
- He worked at that company for five years.
Keywords to Look For:
These words often signal that we need to use the past simple:
- Yesterday
- Last week/month/year
- Ago
- In (year)
- When I was a child
Let’s Practice!
-
Complete the Sentence:
- I _____ (to eat) pizza for dinner last night. (ate)
- She _____ (to visit) her grandparents last weekend. (visited)
- They _____ (to go) to the beach every summer when they were young. (went)
-
Tell a Story:
- Think of something interesting that happened to you in the past.
- Tell your partner about it using the past simple tense.
Challenge:
Write a short paragraph about your childhood. Use the past simple tense to describe your favorite activities, places you lived, or people you spent time with.
