Past Simple | An Easy English Grammar Lesson

Hey Mandy! What did you do yesterday?

I was very busy all day.

I worked on an English Panda video in the morning,

and in the afternoon I studied for a test.

I also did house chores.

What did you do yesterday?

I had a great day.

I took the day off from work, so I went shopping with my friend,

and we ate a really nice lunch together.

Then we watched a movie. It was fantastic.

When I got home, I played video games!

Must be nice!

Hey everyone! Today, we're going to learn about the past simple tense!

The past simple helps us to talk about things that happened in the past and are already finished.

We'll learn about regular verbs, irregular verbs, and how to make negative sentences and questions!

Are you ready to go back in time?

Let's do it!

The first way we use past simple is with regular verbs!

These verbs are super easy to use.

All you have to do is add -ed to the end. That's it!

For example: I watched a movie yesterday.

She worked on a video.

I played video games.

There are some exceptions. Take a look at this verb:

I was studying but I stopped one hour ago.

Did you notice the extra 'p' in the word "stopped"?

If the last three letters of a regular verb are consonant, vowel, consonant,

then you have to repeat the final letter before '-ed.'

There are some exceptions to this but we will give you a list at the end of the video!

Now let's take a look at irregular verbs.

These verbs don't follow the -ed rule. They change in different ways!

Ooooh, irregular verbs!

They're special, and you have to learn their new forms.

Go becomes went,

eat becomes ate,

and take becomes took. No -ed here!

Here are a few examples:

I went to the park yesterday.

She ate pizza for dinner last night.

They took a trip last summer.

There's no one rule for irregular verbs, so it's important to study them.

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Now, let's get back to the lesson!

All of the examples so far were positive. I watched, I did, I ate.

But what about negative sentences?

No problem!

We just use 'didn't' and keep the main verb in its base form.

Wait, wait...

Even in the past, the verb stays the same after didn't?

That's right!

Just use didn't plus the base verb, and you are talking about the past.

Let's see some examples:

I didn't do my homework last night.

She didn't go to the party.

We didn't eat lunch today.

The final thing you need to learn is that you can also ask questions about the past.

Past simple questions look like this:

Did you see the new movie?

Did they run in the race?

Did she write a letter to her friend?

Let's do a quick review!

To use past simple correctly, you must learn: regular verbs,

irregular verbs,

negative sentences, and how to ask questions!

Now it's your turn! What did you do yesterday?

Write an answer to us in the comments.

We hope this video helped you with past simple.

Practice talking about your past using both regular and irregular verbs,

and don't forget to ask lots of questions in your next English conversation!

Thanks for watching, everyone! Bye!