Year 7 English – Simple Past Tense

📘 What is the Simple Past Tense?

The simple past tense is used to describe actions or events that happened at a specific time in the past.

It is often formed by adding -ed to regular verbs (e.g., "walked", "played").

Words like yesterday, last week, and in 2010 are commonly used with the simple past tense to indicate when the action took place.

🎬 Regular Verbs in Simple Past

To form the simple past tense of regular verbs, add -ed to the base form of the verb.

• clean – cleaned
• play – played
• jump – jumped
• talk – talked
• work – worked
• use – used

📝 Irregular Verbs in Simple Past

Some verbs do not follow the standard pattern of adding -ed. These are called irregular verbs.

• go – went
• see – saw
• eat – ate
• take – took
• make – made
• come – came

❓ How to form the Irregular Verbs in Simple Past

Here are some key patterns and types of irregular verbs:

• No Change – Base form remains the same (e.g., "cut -> cut", "put -> put")
• Ending in -t or -d – Add -t or -d behind the base form (e.g, "feel -> felt", "send -> sent")
• Vowel change – Change the vowel sound in the base form (e.g., "sing -> sang", "run -> ran")

🕒 Examples of Simple Past Tense

• I visited my grandparents last weekend.
• She watched a movie yesterday.
• They went to the park in the afternoon.
• He ate pizza for dinner last night.
• We played soccer after school.

🛑 Negative Sentences in Simple Past

To make negative sentences in the simple past tense, use did not (or didn't) followed by the base form of the verb.

• I did not (didn't) go to the party last night.
• She did not (didn't) finish her homework.
• They did not (didn't) see the movie.

❓ Questions in Simple Past

To form questions in the simple past tense, use did followed by the subject and the base form of the verb.

• Did you visit your grandparents last weekend?
• Did she watch a movie yesterday?
• Did they go to the park in the afternoon?