The Simple Past

FORM: verb+ed

Simple Past Exercise 1

Simple Past Exercise 2

Simple Past Exercise 3

Simple Past King Sejong Exercise

The simple past is used to talk about activities or situations that began and ended at a particular time in the past (e.g., yesterday, last night, two days ago, in 2006).

• Min Soo cooked dinner last night.
• I played computer games for 2 hours yesterday.

Most verbs are formed by adding -ed to the end of the verb. They are called regular verbs. However, there are many verbs which have an irregular form. See the table below for a list of common irregular verbs.

• My mother worked very hard last week.
• My family ate dinner together last night.

Simple Past Spelling Rules

Simple Past or Present Perfect?

Statement

{ I – You – We – They – He – She – It } studied.

Negative

{ I – You – We – They – He – She – It } did not study.

Question

Did { I – you – we – they – he – she -it } study?

Short Answer

Yes, { I – you – we – they – he – she – it } did.

No, { I – you – we – they – he – she – it } didn’t.