Simple Past Tense - Definition, Rules, How to Use It, With Examples

Let us discuss in detail the simple past tense definition and examples in this section:

Simple Past Tense is the ‘simplest’ or the ‘basic’ form of the past tense. Thus, the definition for simple past tense basically describes an event or action that happened in the past and is no longer happening. Thus, actions denoting actions that happened in the past and are over or finished now categorized as simple past tense.

So, whenever you come across expressions like – I ate a burger yesterday. Or We spoke to our manager about a deadline extension. Or something that happened over a couple of years ago all suggest past actions which are denoted by simple past tense.  

Here, most of the base verb forms are prefixed with either ‘d or ‘ed’, but there are also exceptions to the rule of simple past tense use.  

Simple Past Tense Examples 

Examples for simple past tense will help applicants understand the use of the past form of the verb:

1. We went for a movie last weekend. 
2. She spoke about rising inflation rates in the country. 
3. We gathered for a party at Sam’s house last Sunday. 
4. 10 years back we lived in the outskirts of Delhi. 
5. My batchmates participated in the Model UN in college.  
6. I first attended a concert 12 years back in the USA. 

These are some of the basic and common simple past tense examples for reference. Simple past tense examples will help with your IELTS Speaking and IELTS Writing sections. 

Simple past tense is used to describe past events and actions. Not just these they are more areas where simple past tense is used, check them below with examples: 

1. Actions Happened in the Past

Actions that were completed or that happened in the past. For example: 

• I finished my homework three days ago. 
• We made our presentation yesterday night. 
• He baked us a delicious cake on his last birthday. 

2. Past Habits

A lot of people used to have a habit and would do something that they don’t do now, these are past habits, where simple past tense is used. Here are some simple past tense examples for understanding: 

• Reha ate mud when she was a toddler. 

• I played with my dad when he came back from the office. 
• She spoke with a lisp when she was in class IV. 

3. Sharing Old Stories

Remember when grandparents used to tell us stories and they would always begin with a typical past tense phrase like ‘once upon a time’, ‘100 years back there was a king’ and many others use the simple past tense form of the narrative. Simple past tense examples for old stories are: 

• Once upon a time, there was a mighty king. He fought with 10 blindfolded bulls. 

• There was a time when we read books about history. 
• 1000 years back people lived on fruits.  

4. Reported Speech

Even while using reported speech where someone is describing a past incident the indirect speech uses the simple past tense. Here are a few simple past examples for reported speech: 

• Direct Speech: Reema said, “I went to a spa yesterday.” 
• Indirect Speech: Reema said she went to a spa the day before. 
• Direct Speech: Raj said. “I spoke about the concerns in the meeting today.” 
• Indirect Speech: Raj said he spoke about the concerns in the meeting that day.  

After understanding the use of simple past tense and simple past tense examples let us now understand the simple past rules based on different sentence types. 

Simple past tense rules include subject, past form of verb followed by object. Here is how simple past tense rule varies for different sentence forms-

*S denotes subject, V denotes verb and O denotes object.  

Note- Simple past tense rules do not change with plural forms of verb. So even if the subject is plural - verb form will remain same as in case of singular subjects. Simple past tense examples for plural subjects are

• We ate breakfast late today. 

• We didn’t eat breakfast today. 

• Did you all/guys eat breakfast today?

Hence it can be inferred that verb forms do not change and remain same irrespective of singular or plural subjects. However with negative and interrogative sentences, base form of verb is used because verb form “do” is used.

Based on the first, second and third person check out how simple past tense varies for the verb eat and hear in the table below: 

Thus, these examples for simple past tense include one example of regular and one example of irregular verbs. The only aim of giving past simple tense examples was to show that the verb forms do not change based on first, second or third person, unlike present tense.

Verb forms in the simple past tense change if they are regular or irregular verbs. The regular verbs just add ‘ed’ or ‘d’ at the end of the base form of the verb.

Regular & Irregular Verbs in Simple Past Tense 

To understand difference between regular and irregular verb forms in simple past tense, check out table below:

Thus, if you notice there is a pattern of change in all these verb forms. Verbs ending in ‘-er’ are suffixed with ‘ed’ in simple past tense. Verbs with ‘-ing’ change to ‘-ang’ and verbs ending in ‘ry’ change to ‘ied’ in simple past tense references.

Apart from these verbs - regular and irregular, there are also verb forms that do not change in the use of simple past tense like:

• put - put
• cut - cut
• shut - shut
• read - read
• spread - spread
• set - set

Simple past tense is the fundamental use of an action in the past tense but is often confused with past continuous and past perfect verb forms. For a better understanding here is the difference between simple past, past perfect and past continuous to avoid confusion and understand the concepts closely:

Prospective IELTS applicants can keep this table handy while preparing for the exam, especially for its different modules.

There are some common mistakes to avoid while using the simple past past tense. Here are some of them that must be avoided at all costs: 

1. Confusing Simple Past with Simple Present Tense

Simple past tense means an action has happened while simple present tense means universal truths and information. Thus, unknowingly applicants use a verb form that describes an action happening now (present tense) when they should be talking about an action that had already happened in the past (past tense); For example: 

• Incorrect: I bring a new phone yesterday. 
• Correct: I bought a new phone yesterday. 

2. Use of Right Verb Forms in Simple Past Tense

Applicants often confuse the regular and irregular verb forms and how they are used in a context. While regular verbs just add ‘ed’ or ‘d’ in the end, irregular verbs will change. Let us understand through an example: 

Regular Verb Form Example for Simple Past

• Incorrect: I play badminton at the club this weekend. 

• Correct: I played badminton at the club this weekend. 

Irregular Verb Form Example for Simple Past 

• Incorrect: I leave the office by 6:30 p.m. last week. 

• Correct: I left the office by 6:30 p.m. last week.  

3. Simple Past vs Past Perfect Tense

Past perfect tense refers to an action that occurred before another time. Past perfect tense use is also seen in cases where a past action occurred before a given time.  While simple past is an action that simply happened in the past. Example, 

• Incorrect: I had signed my new apartment lease yesterday. 
• Correct: I signed my new apartment lease last week. 

4. Simple Past vs Past Continuous

As the name suggests, past simple actions got over in the past, the past continuous actions are temporary actions that were going on in the background in the past at some point of time. So how to differentiate between the two? Let’s find out:  

• Incorrect: I played football when it was raining.  

• Correct: I was playing football when it started raining.