Past Simple — The Verb to be
Use was / were to talk about states or facts in the past.
Affirmative
| Subject | Verb | Example |
|---|---|---|
| I / He / She / It | was | She was happy. |
| You / We / They | were | They were at home. |
Negative
- I was not (wasn’t) tired.
- They were not (weren’t) ready.
Questions & Short Answers
- Was she at school? — Yes, she was. / No, she wasn’t.
- Were you happy? — Yes, I was. / No, I wasn’t.
Past Simple — Regular Verbs
Use the past simple to talk about an action that happened and finished in the past.
Affirmative — add -ed
Subject + verb + -ed → I worked, you played, he visited.
Negative — did not + base verb
I didn’t work. They didn’t play.
Questions — Did + subject + base verb?
Did you play? — Yes, I did. / No, I didn’t.
⚙️ Spelling Rules — add d / ed / ied
| Rule | Examples |
|---|---|
| Most verbs: add -ed | work → worked, play → played, talk → talked |
| Verb ends in -e: add -d | live → lived, smile → smiled, dance → danced |
| Consonant + y: change y → i, add -ed | cry → cried, try → tried, study → studied, carry → carried |
| Vowel + y: just add -ed | play → played, stay → stayed, enjoy → enjoyed |
| Short CVC verbs: double the last consonant + ed | stop → stopped, plan → planned, hop → hopped |
⚠️ Important: You must know these spelling rules — they are tested on the exam.
📝 Practice Exercise
Type the correct past-simple form of the verb in brackets. Press Check. After all questions, you’ll see your score and can retest only the wrong ones.