SIMPLE PAST

The simple past tense is used to talk about a completed action in a time before now. The simple past is the basic form of past tense in English. The time of the action can be in the recent past or the distant past and action duration is not important.

- John Cabot sailed to America in 1498.

- My father died last year.

- He lived in Fiji in 1976.

- We crossed the Channel yesterday.

You always use the simple past when you say when something happened, so it is associated with certain past time expressions

frequency: often, sometimes, always

- I sometimes walked home at lunchtime.

- I often brought my lunch to school.

a definite point in time: last week, when I was a child, yesterday, six weeks ago

- We saw a good film last week.

- Yesterday, I arrived in Geneva.

- She finished her work atseven o'clock

- I went to the theatre last night

an indefinite point in time: the other day, ages ago, a long time ago

- People lived in caves a long time ago.

- She played the piano when she was a child.

the word ago is a useful way of expressing the distance into the past.

It is placed after the period of time: a week ago, three years ago, a minute ago.