Past Simple Tense Examples

The past simple tense, sometimes called the preterit, 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.

Here are some examples.

We have also prepared a complete list of irregular verbs in English. It contains more than 600 verbs, sorted by difficulty.

The Past Simple tense examples

Examples of Affirmative sentences

construction of an affirmative sentence for the past simple tense:

Subject + past simple (verb + ed or irregular verb) + object.

You can also see 10 examples of simple past tense sentences in a separate article.

Examples of negative sentences

negative sentence construction for the past simple tense:

Subject + did not + base form of verb + object.

 
It is good to learn the top 100 irregular verbs. English has more than 600 of them, but start with the most common ones.

Examples of questions

question construction for the past simple tense:

Did + subject + base form of verb + object ?

 
Read the detailed article on the past simple tense.

See examples of 5 sentences of simple past tense.