Written

When do we use the Past Simple?

 

We use the Past Simple when we want to talk about things that happened in the past.

Here are two examples:

2 kinds of verbs + their form

 

To be able to use the tense correct you need to know there are two kinds of verbs in the English language: regular and irregular verbs.

Regular verb?

Irregular verb?

Some most frequently used irregular verbs:

  1. Say/said
  2. make/made
  3. go/went
  4. take/took
  5. come/came
  6. see/saw
  7. know/knew
  8. get/got
  9. give/gave
  10. find/found
Signal words

 

These words make it clear to you what tense has to be used in a sentence.

Signal words for Past Simple:

  1. yesterday
  2. last week/month/year
  3. a month/ a week/ a year ago
  4. in 2010/2011/1999
  5. this morning