The past simple tense

Last updated on July 8th, 2021 at 07:56 am

We use the past simple tense to talk about the actions or situations that happened in the past.

*Most verbs have their past simple tense by adding ‘-ed, -d’ to the verb.
Ex: It rained yesterday.
They visited their grandchildren last year.
Our neighbours invited us to the party.
She packed the luggage in the lorry.
You stayed here.

*Other verbs have the last consonant doubled but x, y, c, w are not doubled. It is when the verb ends in consonant-vowel-consonant.

Ex: They planned the whole situation together.
Last year, we travelled to Kigali.
The cat stopped playing with the dog.
The antivirus scanned my flash disk.

*If the verb ends in ‘-y’ preceded by a consonant, the ‘-y’ is changed to ‘-i-’ before adding -ed. 

Ex: Our English teacher married his fiancée.
We studied the physical map of Rwanda.
The businessman supplied the boxes of juice.
Nobody denied what he said.

*Some verbs remain the same.

Ex: My balloon burst last Friday.
He hit my sister.                               
Peter put her book in the bag.
They shut the door.
         Other verbs include bid, cut, cast, cost, rid, set, upset…

*Other verbs are irregular. They change anyhow.
Ex: I saw some boys escaping.
Lucky brought a new watch.
The baby broke the vase.
You knew that he would come.

*To put those verbs in negative and interrogative form, we use the verb ‘to do’(did).
        Ex: He played football.
Interrogative form: Did he play football?
Negative form: He did not play football.

Amina saw you.
Interrogative form: Did Amina see you?
Negative form:  Amina did not see you.

The adverbs of time like yesterday, last month/year, the day before,…. are used with simple past tense.