Definition & Examples

The structure of a sentence in the simple past tense is:
Subject + Verb (past tense) + Object (optional)

Examples of simple past tense sentences:

She walked to the store.
He ate a sandwich for lunch.
The sun set behind the mountains.

The Simple Past Tense can be used to form affirmative sentences, negative sentences, general questions, and special questions.

Affirmative Sentence: Subject + Past Tense Verb
Example: She walked to the store.

Negative Sentence: Subject + Did Not + Base Form of Verb
Example: She did not walk to the store.

General Question: Did + Subject + Base Form of Verb
Example: Did she walk to the store?

Special Question: Wh- Word + Did + Subject + Base Form of Verb
Example: Where did she walk to?

Here are some common key words in the Simple Past Tense:

Yesterday
Last night/week/month/year
Ago
In (year)

For example:

He walked to the park yesterday. (Yesterday is a key word indicating the action took place in the past)
She ate sushi for lunch last week. (Last week is a key word indicating the action took place in the past)
I visited my grandparents two weeks ago. (Ago is a key word indicating the action took place in the past)
They traveled to Europe in 2019. (In 2019 is a key word indicating the action took place in the past)

一般过去时-中文解析

一般过去时常用于描述已发生的动作或状态，结构为：主语+v.(过去式)。

习题-Exercises

Exercise 1:

Change the following verbs from the present tense to the simple past tense:

I go to the store. (I went to the store.)
She drinks coffee every morning. (She drank coffee every morning.)
He reads a book every night. (He read a book last night.)
We play tennis on weekends. (We played tennis last weekend.)
They watch TV every evening. (They watched TV yesterday evening.)

Exercise 2:

Fill in the blank with the correct verb form in the simple past tense:

Yesterday, I __________ (walk) to the park. (walked)
She __________ (sing) in the choir last night. (sang)
He __________ (run) a marathon last month. (ran)
We __________ (eat) at a new restaurant last week. (ate)
They __________ (dance) at the party until midnight. (danced)

Exercise 3:

Write complete sentences in the simple past tense:

__________ (visit) his grandparents last weekend. (He visited his grandparents last weekend.)
__________ (study) for the test all night. (She studied for the test all night.)
__________ (travel) to Europe last summer. (They traveled to Europe last summer.)
__________ (run) 10 miles yesterday. (I ran 10 miles yesterday.)
__________ (eat) sushi for lunch. (We ate sushi for lunch.)