Simple Past Tense Structure and Usage

Simple past tense structure is extremely simple and advisable to begin with for the beginners trying to learn tenses. This is also called ‘Past Indefinite Tense’. It is widely used to narrate the events happened in the past. If you ask me, 90% of the narration of our day to day life is done in Simple Past Tense. In this guide, I will teach you step by step everything that you need to learn this particular tense and start its usage in your conversation.

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What is Tense?

Tense is basically a grammatical concept that indicates ‘TIME’. There are three main categories of ‘tense’-  Past, Present and Future. Further classification is done in these three categories to indicate the exact timing of an action. Here is a concept map depicting all 12 forms of the ‘tense’.

Past
|— Simple Past: I ate dinner yesterday.
|–– Past Continuous: I was eating dinner when the phone rang.
|— Past Perfect: I had eaten dinner before he arrived.
|— Past Perfect Continuous: I had been eating dinner for an hour when he arrived.

Present
|— Simple Present: I eat fruits every day.
|—Present Continuous: I am eating dinner.
|— Present Perfect: I have eaten dinner.
|— Present Perfect Continuous: I have been eating dinner.

Future
|— Simple Future: I will eat dinner tonight.
|— Future Continuous: I will be eating dinner at 7 p.m. tomorrow.
|— Future Perfect: I will have eaten dinner by the time you arrive.
|— Future Perfect Continuous: I will have been eating dinner for an hour when you arrive.

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What is Simple Past Tense?

Simple past tense is used to describe an action or event that happened in the past. Here are a few examples:

• India got independence in 1947.
• I completed my graduation in 2004.
• The first world war started in  1914.
• The minister filed his resignation yesterday.

All these are the events of the past. So we describe these actions or events in simple past tense.

What do you mean by ‘past’?

An action that occurred either a second ago or a decade ago or a century ago is termed as an action of past. Hence we use V2 to describe the action.

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Simple Past Tense Structure

Following is the structure of a simple past tense.

Subject + V2 (Past form of a verb) + rest of the sentence

Example: Bruno jumped to catch the ball.

Here ‘Bruno’ is the Subject and ‘jumped‘ is V2.

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Affirmative Simple Past Tense

An Affirmative sentence refers to describe a sentence used to express an assertion or a positive fact. The aforementioned is also an example of an affirmative simple past tense. There is no use of ‘not’, ‘question word’ or ‘question mark (?)’ in this kind of sentence.

Structure: Subject + V2 (Past form of a verb)

Example: Rahul studied hard for his exam last night.

Here ‘Rahul’ is the Subject and ‘studied‘ is V2.

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Negative Simple Past Tense

A negative simple past tense is used to describe an action that did not happen in the past. In this, ‘not’ is used with auxiliary verb ‘did’ followed by the V1 (present form of a verb).

Structure: Subject + did not + V1 (Present form of a verb)

Why to use V1 here?

Since ‘did’ is already the past form of ‘do’, it is always followed by V1. Both past verbs cannot be used in a sentence together.

Example: Neeta did not go to her college today.

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Interrogative Simple Past Tense

These are used to ask questions about an event or action that happened in the past. There are two kinds of interrogative sentences:

• Yes/No questions: These questions are framed to get ‘yes’ or ‘no’ answer. These begin with an auxiliary verb e.g. do, does, did, is, am , are, was, were, has, have , had, etc. followed by the subject. In the case of simple past tense, these begin with ‘did’ only.

Structure: did + Subject + V1 +……..?

Example: Did you have your breakfast?

• Wh questions: These questions begin with a question word e.g., “who,” “where,” “what,”  “when,” “which,” “why,” “how,” etc.) and typically ask for specific information. After the question word, auxiliary verb (did) is used followed by the subject.

Structure: ‘Wh’ word + did + Subject + V1 +……..?

Example: Why did Gopal join the army?

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Simple Past Tense Usage

As we have already discussed, simple past tense structure is used to describe an action happened in the past. So, we widely use it in our day to day language while describing

• a past experience
• our past routine
• narrating a story
• narrating an event and so on.

Let’s take some examples to understand the usage and practical implementation of this tense in a mixed way (affirmative, negative and interrogative together).

Q. Hey, what did you do this Sunday?

Ans. Nothing much. I woke up late, had my breakfast and watched TV. In the evening, I went to the market. There I met an old friend. We spent some time together and talked about our college days. At night, I ordered pizza for dinner. After that, I read a novel and went to bed at 11 p.m.

Q. Describe one of the happiest days of your life.

Ans. It was 15th June 2009. My 12th class result came out. As soon as I came to know about it, I searched for my roll no. With trembling hands, I typed in my roll no. at the result website. I closed my eyes due to fear and excitement. Slowly I gathered the courage and looked at the screen. I was shocked to see 90% marks. I informed my family members. My mother distributed sweets in the neighbourhood. Everyone was hilarious.  My joy knew no bounds. My hard work made me win.

Q. Narrate a story.

Ans. In a village, a farmer lived with his four sons. His sons were very lazy. The farmer wanted to teach his sons the value of hard work. One day, he called all his sons and told them about a buried treasure in their field. The sons started digging the field. But they did not find any treasure. Disappointed, they went back to their father and told about it. The farmer asked them to be patient and sow the seeds in the field. They did so. After 6 months, they harvested a rich crop and sold it in the market. Hence, they earned a huge amount of money and became rich. Now they understood the importance of hard work and the meaning of real treasure.

Note: All bold words are ‘V2’ used with the ‘subject’. Also take note of the connecting words e.g. as soon as, slowly, after that, then, etc. These words are used to connect the sentences together and present them beautifully in our conversation.

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Worksheet for Practice

Task 1

Make a list of all the verbs used in three questions above. Write their V1, V2 and V3. For example:

• Go, Went, Gone
• Watch, Watched, Watched

(Make an extensive list of all such verbs and learn them. This will enhance your vocabulary and grammar.)

Task 2

Write the correct form of the verb to complete each sentence. Use the simple past tense structure.

Set I

1. Affirmative: He __________ (play) football yesterday.
2. Negative: She __________ (not, go) to the party last night.
3. Interrogative: __________ (you, finish) your homework yesterday?
4. Affirmative: They __________ (visit) their grandparents last weekend.
5. Negative: He __________ (not, eat) breakfast this morning.
6. Interrogative: __________ (she, see) the movie last night?
7. Affirmative: We __________ (clean) the house yesterday.
8. Negative: The train __________ (not, arrive) on time.
9. Interrogative: __________ (he, study) for the exam last week?
10. Affirmative: She __________ (buy) a new dress for the party.
11. Affirmative: The team __________ (win) the championship last year.
12. Negative: I __________ (not, see) him at the meeting yesterday.
13. Interrogative: __________ (they, finish) their project on time?
14. Affirmative: She __________ (teach) English in Japan for two years.
15. Negative: He __________ (not, have) breakfast before he left.

Set II

1. Interrogative: __________ (you, hear) about the new restaurant downtown?
2. Affirmative: We __________ (travel) to Europe last summer.
3. Negative: The company __________ (not, make) any profits last quarter.
4. Interrogative: __________ (he, meet) the deadline for the assignment?
5. Affirmative: They __________ (build) a new house in the countryside.
6. Negative: She __________ (not, take) the bus to work yesterday.
7. Interrogative: __________ (you, see) that movie when it was in theaters?
8. Affirmative: He __________ (read) three books last month.
9. Negative: The concert __________ (not, start) on time.
10. Interrogative: __________ (she, visit) her family during the holidays?
11. Affirmative: We __________ (eat) dinner at a fancy restaurant last night.
12. Negative: He __________ (not, go) to the gym yesterday.
13. Interrogative: __________ (they, finish) the project before the deadline?
14. Affirmative: She __________ (sing) at the talent show last week.
15. Negative: The weather __________ (not, cooperate) during our vacation.

Answers:

SET I

1. played
2. did not go
3. Did you finish
4. visited
5. did not eat
6. Did she see
7. cleaned
8. did not arrive
9. Did he study
10. bought
11. won
12. did not see
13. Did they finish
14. taught
15. did not have

SET II

1. Have you heard
2. travelled
3. did not make
4. Did he meet
5. built
6. did not take
7. Did you see
8. read
9. did not start
10. Did she visit
11. ate
12. did not go
13. Did they finish
14. sang
15. did not cooperate

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Any Doubts?

You can type in your doubt in the comment box below. I would be happy to hear from you and provide solution to any query.

Hope it had been a great session for you. Read this guide again and again to be an expert in Simple Past Tense Structure. Practice the usage of simple past tense as indicated above. Solve the given worksheet and start using this tense in your day to day life. Next post will be about Simple Present Tense. Till then, practice this really hard.

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For more practice in daily use English phrases, check out the following links:

• Daily English Speaking Practice with 50 Smart Phrases
• 80+ Daily Use English Sentences with Hindi Meaning
• 10 Commonly Used English Conversation Practice Topics
• 30 Popular Gen Z Slangs with Meaning