English tenses › Past Simple
Past Simple
Past Simple is the tense for finished actions at a finished time in the past. It is the main tense for telling stories.
Form
When to use it
Finished action
At a known time in the past.
I met her in 2018.
A sequence of events
One action after another, as in a story.
He opened the door, looked around and left.
Past habits and states
Things that were true for a time in the past.
We lived near the sea when I was a kid.
Time words
yesterday, last week, last year, ago, in 2015, when I was…, then
Examples
- I watched a great video last night.
- Did you enjoy the trip?
- She didn’t say anything.
- We went to Porto two years ago.
- He bought a new laptop.
- What time did the meeting start?
Common mistake
Did you went there?
Did you go there?
After did, use the base form of the verb, not the past form.
Past Simple or Present Perfect?
Past Simple needs a finished time; Present Perfect is about now: I lost my keys yesterday. I’ve lost my keys (and I still can’t find them). More about Present Perfect.
Hear it in videos
See it in real speech. Paste any YouTube link into Tense Lens and every tense in the video is highlighted as it is spoken, with a map of where each one appears.