How do we make the Past Simple Tense?

To make the past simple tense, we use:

• past form only
  or
  
• auxiliary did + base form

Here you can see examples of the past form and base form for irregular verbs and regular verbs:

The structure for positive sentences in the past simple tense is:

The structure for negative sentences in the past simple tense is:

The structure for question sentences in the past simple tense is:

The auxiliary verb did is not conjugated. It is the same for all persons (I did, you did, he did etc). And the base form and past form do not change. Look at these examples with the main verbs go and work:

Exception! The verb to be is different. We conjugate the verb to be (I was, you were, he/she/it was, we were, they were); and we do not use an auxiliary for negative and question sentences. To make a question, we exchange the subject and verb. Look at these examples:

Use of the Past Simple Tense »