Past Tense

The simple past tense shows that you are talking about something that has already happened. Unlike the past continuous tense, which is used to talk about past events that happened over a period of time, the simple past tense emphasizes that the action is finished.

You can also use the simple past to talk about a past state of being, such as the way someone felt about something. This is often expressed with the simple past tense of the verb to be and an adjective, noun, or prepositional phrase.

For regular verbs, add -ed to the root form of the verb (or just -d if the root form already ends in an e):

Example: Play→Played / Type→Typed

For irregular verbs, things get more complicated. The simple past tense of some irregular verbs looks exactly like the root form:

Example: Put→Put / Cut→Cut / Set→Set

For other irregular verbs, including the verb to be, the simple past forms are more erratic:

Example: See→Saw / Build→Built / Go→Went