CEFR B1 · 5 min
2005 to 2017. Twelve years of Sydney. Every sentence about that chapter of my life starts with ‘I worked at…’ or ‘We lived in…’ or ‘She told me…’ The past simple is the tense of completed time — the shelf where you store the chapters that are finished.
Today's focus: Past simple: regular/irregular verbs, negative, question form, time markers
Past simple = a finished time slot.
- Regular: add -ed → worked, lived, started
- Irregular: go → went, see → saw, tell → told, leave → left, make → made
- Negative: didn’t + base verb → ‘I didn’t know anyone.’
- Question: Did + subject + base verb → ‘Did you enjoy it?’
Time markers: ago, last year, in 2005, when, yesterday, at [time]
Examples in context
Try it — click to reveal the answer
▶ What is the past simple of ‘leave’?
Other common irregulars: buy → bought, bring → brought, think → thought, catch → caught.
▶ Make this negative: ‘He understood the menu.’
Mistake to avoid: ‘He didn’t understood’ ✗. The past is carried by ‘didn’t’ — the main verb returns to base form.
▶ Which time marker fits past simple? (a) for three years (b) since 2019 (c) in 2005
‘For three years’ and ‘since 2019’ are present perfect markers (duration/starting point up to now).
Past simple = finished time. Spot the irregular verbs (go/went, see/saw) and never use ‘didn’t’ with a past-tense verb: didn’t understand, not didn’t understood.
Independent project; not affiliated with, endorsed by, or accredited by Cambridge University Press & Assessment. Confers no qualification. Cambridge CELTA course completed — 120 supervised teaching hours and four written assignments validated to the required standard.