In the English language, there are four different types of past tenses: Simple past, past continuous, past perfect, and past perfect continuous.
The simple past verb tense is used to speak about things that happened and finished in the recent past.
When you finish watching these videos and doing the exercises you will be able to make:
- Affirmative Sentences
- Negative Sentences
- Interrogative sentences
in the next section, you will find all examples of these types of sentences so you know what to expect after the work you are about to put on.
Table of Contents
Simple Past Examples
These are 7 examples of affirmative sentences using the simple past
- I watched a movie
- You rented an apartment in Costa Rica
- She drank a cup of coffee
- It caught a mouse
- He made a mistake
- We spent a day in Tamarindo
- They bought a brand new car
These are 7 examples of negative sentences using the simple past
- I didn’t take your money.
- She didn’t say goodbye.
- He didn’t call me back.
- You didn’t watch the second season of Primal.
- It didn’t catch the spider.
- We didn’t order anything from Amazon.
- They didn’t buy more crypto.
These are 7 examples of interrogative sentences using the simple past
- Did I make a mistake?
- Did you fly to London?
- Did he commit a crime?
- Did she try again?
- Did it work for you?
- Did they go to the gym?
- Did we lose all of our money?
These are 7 examples of open questions with the simple past:
- Why did I do that?
- What did you do yesterday?
- Why did she say such a thing?
- Why did he work out every day?
- Why did it fail?
- Why did they work on your project?
- Why did we migrate to the United States?
Simple Past Videos
These are the best videos to learn what the simple past is.
Try to watch as many of these suggestions as possible so you can learn more about this topic
| Simple Past Guide | Channel |
| Simple Past Video | Ellii |
| Past Simple Tense in English | Woodward English |
| Learn Past Simple Tense | Shaw English Online |
| Learn English Tenses: Past Simple | EngVid |
Simple Past Exercises
These are the best exercise to test how much you know about the negative, affirmative and interrogative sentences with the simple past.
The first set of exercises comes from Perfect English Grammar
- Past Simple with ‘Be‘
- Past Simple with ‘Be’
- Past Simple ‘Be’ Mixed Exercise 1
- Past Simple Negative
- Past Simple – ‘Yes / No’ Questions
- Past Simple – ‘Wh’ Questions
- Past Simple ‘Be’ Mixed Exercise 1
- Past Simple – Mixed Exercise 2
The second set of exercises comes from Agenda Web
- Past Simple – Regular forms
- Past Simple – Regular verbs
- Past Simple Affirmative – Write
- Past Simple Regular – write
- Past Tenses: -ed / -ied
- Negative forms – past simple
- Affirmative – negative: write
- Interrogative forms – past simple
- Affirmative – interrogative: write
- Negative – interrogative: write
More Exercises in English
These are other collections of resources for different grammar topics
