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  • » Simple Past Tense

Simple Past Tense

Definition

The simple past tense describes events that happened in the past.

Example

I printed the file yesterday.

Explanation

The simple past tense —

• describes actions completed in the past.
• uses time expressions to show when the action happened in the past — “yesterday”, “last week”, “last year”, “in 2004”, are examples of time expressions.
• adds “ed” to the verb for regular verbs.
• has irregular verb forms.
• uses the auxiliary “did” + “not” to make negative simple past sentences.
• uses the same structure as the simple present for questions.