In English most of the verbs form the past simple by adding -ed or -d to the base form, if the verb is regular. There are also a large number of irregular verbs in English, about 200. These verbs have irregular forms in the simple past and the past participle which have to be learnt by heart.
The simple past is used to indicate an action that took place and ended in the past. It is often accompanied by adverbs or expressions of time referring to the past: yesterday, last week, last month, last year, when I was …., or date in the past (e.g. in 1990, during the 15th century, etc..).
The interrogative and the negative forms are built with the auxiliary – did/didn’t.
| Affirmative | Negative | Interrogative | Negative Interrogative | Examples |
| I play-ed | I didn’t play | Did I play? | Didn’t I play? | Yesterday I played golf |
| I love-d | I didn’t love | Did I love? | Didn’t I love? | When I was young I didn’t love riding a bike. |
| I wrote | I didn’t write | Did I write? | Didn’t I write? | Did you write a letter to your friend? |
| I read | I didn’t read | Did I read? | Didn’t I read? | Yesterday I read the newspaper. |
Past Simple