What is simple past tense?
The simple past is the basic form of past tense in English. The past tense is used to talk about a completed action in a time before now.
Forming the Simple Past Tense
If it’s a regular verb, the basic form of verb + “ed”. If it’s an irregular verb, the simple past tense is formed in all sorts of different ways.
Using the Simple Past Tense
actions finished in the past
series of completed actions in the past
together with the Past Progressive/Continuous tenses
When using the simple past tense, you can use the following word order: [subject] + [verb]
We always use the simple past tense when we say when something happened, so it is associated with a certain past time expression. In the Simple Past tense, the process of performing the action is not important. What matters is that the action was completed in the past. The action may have been in the recent past or a long time ago.
The Simple Past tense is used for actions that started and finished at a specific time in the past.
It’s also possible to use the simple past tense in a sentence without specifying a time, but it must have previously been made clear that the speaker is referring to a finished period.