Introduction

In this unit, we begin to move away from the present and start talking about the past. Until now, you have learned how to describe routines, actions happening now, and possession. Now it is time to talk about completed actions — things that started and finished in the past.

When you say, “I worked yesterday,” “She watched a film last night,” or “They played football on Sunday,” you are using the Past Simple. In this lesson, we will focus specifically on regular verbs and understand how to form and use them correctly.

Learning Objectives

By the end of this unit, you will be able to form the past simple of regular verbs and talk about completed actions in the past.

You will understand spelling rules for regular verbs, build affirmative and negative sentences, form questions, and use time expressions naturally.

Forming the Past Simple – Regular Verbs

The Past Simple of regular verbs is formed by adding -ed to the base form of the verb.

For example: work → worked, play → played, watch → watched, clean → cleaned.

The structure in affirmative sentences is simple: subject + verb in the past form.

For example: “I worked yesterday.” “She played tennis last week.” “They watched a movie.”

In the past simple, the verb does not change with the subject.

Unlike the present simple, there is no difference between I, you, he, she, or they. The verb form is the same for all subjects.

Spelling Rules

Most verbs simply add -ed. However, there are some spelling rules to remember.

If a verb ends in -e, we only add -d. For example: live → lived, like → liked.

If a verb ends in consonant + y, we change y to i and add -ed. For example: study → studied, try → tried.

If a short verb ends in consonant-vowel-consonant, we often double the final consonant. For example: stop → stopped, plan → planned.

Negative Form

To form the negative, we use the auxiliary verb did not (or didn’t) + base form of the verb.

For example: “I did not work yesterday.” “She didn’t play tennis.” “They did not watch the film.”

Notice that after “did not”, the main verb returns to its base form. We do not say “did not worked.”

Do not use -ed in negative sentences.

After “did” or “didn’t”, the verb must be in the base form. For example: “She didn’t study,” not “She didn’t studied.”

Questions

To form questions in the Past Simple, we use Did + subject + base form of the verb.

For example: “Did you work yesterday?” “Did she play tennis?” “Did they watch the movie?”

Short answers are formed with “Yes, subject + did” or “No, subject + didn’t.”

For example: “Did you study?” – “Yes, I did.” / “No, I didn’t.”

Time Expressions with the Past Simple

The Past Simple is often used with specific time expressions such as “yesterday,” “last night,” “last week,” “last year,” “two days ago,” or “in 2020.”

For example: “I visited my grandmother yesterday.” “She finished her homework two hours ago.” These expressions clearly indicate that the action is finished.

Practice Exercises

Now it is your turn to practise the Past Simple of regular verbs.

Complete or transform each sentence carefully. The correct answers are provided in the same table.