▷ 100 Sentences of Simple Past Tense

The past simple tense, sometimes also called the preterite, expresses a completed action in the past. In English, it is the basic kind of past tense. The action could have taken place in the recent or distant past, and it does not matter how long it lasted or took place.

To help you get better at forming the past tense, we have prepared over 100 examples of past simple sentences.

100 sentences of simple past tense

The positive forms of the past simple tense are simple.

I was in London last year
She had a headache last night.
We did our homework yesterday.

The past simple tense of the negative and interrogative forms of the verb to do as the common meaning of the verb “to do” uses the auxiliary did, e.g. “We didn’t do our homework yesterday”.

The negative form of have is usually also formed with did, but in some cases it is possible to add just not or use the shortened form n’t.

The question from have is formed in the past simple tense with did.

Example of affirmative sentences of simple past tense

Below are over 100 sentences of simple past tense divided into affirmative, interrogative and negative sentences.

We all went to school by bus.
The teacher taught how to make cakes in the class.
The boy told that he lost his keys.
It was very dark and we couldn’t see anything at all.
I went to school.
I saw him.
She came here yesterday.
I met her yesterday.
I could not find my bag.
He bought a book yesterday.
We used to go for a picnic on Sundays.
When I reached home, the children were sleeping already.
He worked in a school.
Yesterday was Saturday.
They got home very late last night.
I watched TV last week.
I walked.
I lived abroad for ten years.
They always enjoyed visiting their friends.
The rain stopped an hour ago.
She was beautiful.
I saw a movie last week.
I played football yesterday.
They were hungry.
I met my wife 9 years ago.
The rain stopped an hour ago.
We were good friends.
I forgot my wallet.
An old lady walked with her cat.
I saw him two weeks ago.
I used to be lazy.
I used to be strong but now I am weak.
We ate dinner last night.
He had a dog for 10 years.

It is good to learn the top 100 irregular verbs. English has more than 600 of them, but start with the most common ones. We have also prepared a complete list of irregular verbs in English. It contains more than 600 verbs, sorted by difficulty.