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Verb Tenses - Lesson 103

Past Simple - Regular Verbs

Lesson 103 - learn the past simple with regular verbs: how to form it, when to use it, clear examples and a short video from a British English teacher.

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How to form and use the past simple

How To Form The Past Simple:

To form the past simple affirmative of the present simple take a subject (I, you, the dog, my friends...) and after that put the compliment of the verb with ...ed added to the end (jumped). Like this we get I jumped. To construct negative sentences, take a subject (I, you, the dog, my friends...), then put the auxiliary did, next put not and finally put the compliment of the verb (jump). Do not add ...ed to the end of the verb. Like this we get I did not jump. To make questions use the auxiliary did, followed by a subject, followed by the compliment (no ...ed) of the verb. Did I jump? If you wish you can put a question word before to give: When did I jump? How far did I jump? The table below shows the form of the past simple:

Affirmative Negative Interrogative
I jumped I did not jump Did I jump?
You jumped You did not jump Did you jump?
He jumped He did not jump Did he jump?
She jumped She did not jump Did she jump?
It jumped It did not jump Did it jump?
We jumped We did not jump Did we jump?
You jumped You did not jump Did you jump?
They jumped They did not jump Did they jump?

The following video explains how to form the past simple:

Watch the video lesson

Video transcript

How to form the past simple for regular verbs. To make affirmative, positive statements, take a subject I, then take the compliment, the verb in the infinitive without to and add ...ed. So for this example we are going to use the verb to jump. So jump plus ...ed jumped. So past simple affirmative of jump, I jumped. Notice the pronunciation jumped not jump...ed, jumped, yea? Jump...ed is a very common mistake, particularly among my students. So be careful of that. So I jumped, second person you jumped, he jumped, she jumped, it jumped, we jumped, you jumped, they jumped. So no changes, it's easy. To make negatives use the auxiliary verb did, OK? And then after that put not. So take your subject I, then your auxiliary did, then your not and then the compliment of the verb, the infinitive without to. But this time no ...ed. So to make a negative statement in the past, I did not jump, This can be shortened to I didn't jump. For second person you did not jump, you didn't jump. He didn't jump, she did not jump, it did not jump, we did not jump, you did not jump, they did not jump. To make questions swap, change the place of the subject and the did, change positions. So, to make a question in the past simple, the interrogative, did I jump? Did you jump? Did he jump? Did she jump? Did it jump? Did we jump? Did you jump? Did they jump? Ok? So that's how to form the past simple with regular verbs in English. I'll see you in the next videos which will talk about when to use the past simple and when and how to use irregular verbs in the past simple. See you soon.

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This lesson is part of our free English Verb Tenses course. Work through the series in order, or jump to the tense or structure you need next.

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