past simple

past simple, past tense, -ed, worked, went, yesterday, ago, last week

Tells what happened at a finished time in the past, with -ed on regular verbs and a form of their own on irregular ones, as in and .

AI-generated

Structure

[subject] + [verb]-ed

[subject] + [irregular past form]

The past simple says that something happened and is finished. It often comes with a time: yesterday, last week, in 2019, two days ago.

It has one form for every person: I worked, she worked, they worked.

Most verbs add -ed: work – worked, play – played.
Verbs ending in -e add -d: live – lived, like – liked.
A consonant and -y becomes -ied: study – studied, try – tried. A vowel and -y just adds -ed: play – played.
A short verb ending in one vowel and one consonant doubles the consonant: stop – stopped, plan – planned.
British English doubles a final l: travel – travelled. American English doesn't: traveled.

After t and d, -ed is an extra syllable, /ɪd/: wanted, needed, started.
After the sounds p, k, f, s, sh and ch, it sounds like t: stopped ("stopt"), worked ("workt"), washed.
After other sounds, it sounds like d: played, lived, opened.

Many common verbs have a past form of their own: go – went, have – had, see – saw, make – made, get – got, buy – bought, eat – ate, come – came.

Questions and negatives take did, and the verb goes back to its base form.