FluencyLab
GrammarHub
Use the past simple to talk about actions and events that started and finished at a completed time in the past.
Overview
Use the past simple to talk about actions and events that started and finished at a completed time in the past.
Form and rules
For regular verbs, usually add -ed: work → worked, play → played.
If a verb ends in -e, add -d: live → lived. If it ends consonant + y, change y to i and add -ed: study → studied.
Some short regular verbs double the final consonant: stop → stopped.
Irregular verbs have special forms: go → went, see → saw, have → had, buy → bought.
The positive past form is the same for every subject: I worked, she worked, they worked.
A closer look
Use the past simple for completed actions and events in finished past time, often with expressions such as yesterday, last week, in 2024, or two days ago.
Regular verbs normally add -ed, while irregular verbs change form in different ways. The affirmative past form is the same for every subject.
Examples
We visited Salvador last year.
She studied English yesterday.
The bus stopped near my house.
He bought a new phone.
They went home early.
Common mistakes
Buy is irregular: buy → bought.
A finished past action needs the past form.
Ready to practise?
The test combines multiple choice, gap completion, error correction, and sentence building so students have to recognise and produce the grammar, not simply reread the rule.