Essensial Grammar

Grammar Past simple

 With most verbs, the past tense is formed by adding –ed. But there are a lot of irregular past tense forms in English. Here are the most common irregular verbs in English, with their past tense forms.

We use the past tense to talk about:

• something that happened once in the past:

I met my wife in 1983.
We went to Spain for our holidays.
They got home very late last night.

• something that happened several times in the past:

When I was a boy, I walked a mile to school every day.
We swam a lot while we were on holiday.
They always enjoyed visiting their friends.

• something that was true for some time in the past:

I lived abroad for ten years.
He enjoyed being a student.
She played a lot of tennis when she was younger.

• we often use expressions with ago with the past simple:

I met my wife a long time ago.

Past simple questions and negatives

We use did to make questions with the past simple:

• Did she play tennis when she was younger?
• Did you live abroad?
• When did you meet your wife?
• Where did you go for your holidays?

But questions with who often don't use did:

• Who discovered penicillin?
• Who wrote Don Quixote?

We use didn't (did not) to make negatives with the past simple:

• They didn't go to Spain this year.
• We didn't get home until very late last night.
• I didn't see you yesterday.

taken from:https://learnenglish.britishcouncil.org/english-grammar-reference/past-simple