Subject: Creative Grammar and Writing
Unit 2 — The simple past
Theory with many solved examples.
Learning goals
By the end of this topic you can...
- tell what happened in a story, a weekend, a holiday or a school day, using the simple past.
- put events in order with sequencing words: first, then, after that, later, finally.
- ask and answer questions about the past with did.
- use the base form of the verb after did and didn't.
- write a short narrative paragraph of 5-8 sentences about something that already happened.
1. What the simple past is for
We use the simple past to talk about actions that started and finished in the past. The action is over. It is not happening now.
- Yesterday I walked to school.
- Last Saturday my family went to the beach.
- In 2024 we lived in Cartago.
The action has a clear end. That is why the simple past is the tense of stories: a story is a list of things that already happened. Compare:
| Sentence | Tense | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| I play volleyball on Mondays. | Present | It is my routine. It is still true. |
| I played volleyball yesterday. | Past | It happened and it finished. |
| I am playing volleyball. | Present continuous | It is happening right now. |
2. Regular verbs: verb + -ed
Most verbs are regular. To make the past, you add -ed to the base form.
| Base form | Rule | Past form | Example sentence |
|---|---|---|---|
| walk | + ed | walked | We walked to the park. |
| like | verb ends in -e → + d | liked | I liked the movie. |
| study | consonant + y → -ied | studied | He studied for the test. |
| stop | one vowel + one consonant → double it | stopped | The bus stopped here. |
Careful! Verbs that end in vowel + y do NOT change the y: play → played (not plaied), enjoy → enjoyed, stay → stayed.
3. Irregular verbs: you have to learn them
Some very common verbs do not take -ed. They change completely. There is no rule: you learn them one by one.
| Base form | Past form | Example |
|---|---|---|
| go | went | I went to my grandma's house. |
| eat | ate | We ate rice and beans. |
| have | had | She had a great weekend. |
| see | saw | They saw a big turtle. |
| do | did | He did his homework. |
| make | made | My mom made a cake. |
| get | got | I got a new backpack. |
| take | took | We took many photos. |
| come | came | My cousin came to my house. |
| buy | bought | Dad bought tickets. |
| write | wrote | I wrote a letter. |
Careful! Never mix the two systems. It is went, not goed or wented. It is ate, not eated.
4. The key point: after did / didn't, the verb goes back to the base form
This is the most important idea of this topic.
In negatives and questions, the word did already carries the past. So the main verb goes back to its base form (no -ed, no irregular change).
| Type | Structure | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Affirmative (+) | subject + past verb | She went to the party. |
| Negative (−) | subject + didn't + base verb | She didn't go to the party. |
| Question (?) | Did + subject + base verb ...? | Did she go to the party? |
More examples with the same verb, so you can see the change:
(+) He ate pizza. → (−) He didn't eat pizza. → (?) Did he eat pizza?
(+) We studied at night. → (−) We didn't study at night. → (?) Did you study at night?
Careful! These are the classic mistakes:
❌ She didn't went home. → ✅ She didn't go home.
❌ Did you ate breakfast? → ✅ Did you eat breakfast?
❌ I didn't studied. → ✅ I didn't study.
One past marker per sentence is enough. If did is there, the verb rests.
Only one verb is different: to be
With was and were you do not use did.
- (+) I was tired. → (−) I wasn't tired. → (?) Were you tired?
- (+) They were at school. → (−) They weren't at school. → (?) Were they at school?
5. Asking and answering about the past
Yes/No questions start with Did. The short answers are:
- Did you visit your uncle? → Yes, I did. / No, I didn't.
- Did she finish the project? → Yes, she did. / No, she didn't.
Wh- questions put the question word first, and then the same order: did + subject + base verb.
| Question word | Example question | Possible answer |
|---|---|---|
| What | What did you do on Sunday? | I helped my mom in the kitchen. |
| Where | Where did you go? | We went to Puntarenas. |
| When | When did the game start? | It started at four o'clock. |
| Why | Why did he leave early? | Because he felt sick. |
| How | How did you get there? | We got there by bus. |
Careful! In the answer, the past comes back to the main verb: Where did you go? → I went to the beach. (not I go).
6. Time expressions: they tell the reader "this is the past"
Good past stories almost always have a time expression.
- yesterday, yesterday morning, yesterday afternoon → Yesterday afternoon we had a school festival.
- last night, last week, last Saturday, last summer → I saw my cousins last Saturday.
- two days ago, three weeks ago, a month ago → I broke my glasses two weeks ago.
- in 2019, when I was six years old → When I was six, I lived in San Ramón.
7. Sequencing: putting the events in order
When you tell what happened, the reader needs the order of the events. Use sequencing words at the beginning of the sentence, followed by a comma.
| Position in the story | Words you can use |
|---|---|
| Beginning | First, At first, In the morning, One day |
| Middle | Then, After that, Next, Later, While |
| End | Finally, In the end, At the end of the day |
Example — a school day:
First, I woke up at six o'clock. Then, I ate breakfast with my sister. After that, we took the bus to school. Later, we had a math test. Finally, I came home and played with my dog.
Careful! After that and after are not used in the same way. After that looks back to the event you just told: After that, we went home. After needs a noun or a phrase next to it: After the test, we went home.
8. Writing a short narrative paragraph
A short narrative paragraph about the past usually has three parts:
- Opening sentence: when and where it happened.
- Middle sentences: the events, in order, with sequencing words.
- Closing sentence: how you felt about it.
Model paragraph — "My weekend":
Last Saturday, my family and I went to Manuel Antonio. First, we woke up very early and packed our bags. Then, we drove for three hours. After that, we walked to the beach and swam in the sea. We didn't see any monkeys, but we saw two iguanas. Later, we ate casado in a small restaurant. Finally, we came home at eight o'clock. It was a tiring day, but I loved it.
Look at the paragraph again and notice three things:
- Every verb about the events is in the past.
- The sentence with didn't uses the base form: didn't see, not didn't saw.
- The sequencing words guide the reader from the first event to the last one.
Quick summary
- The simple past talks about actions that started and finished in the past.
- Regular verbs add -ed (walk → walked); irregular verbs change form (go → went) and must be memorised.
- After did and didn't, the main verb goes back to the base form: She didn't go, Did she go?
- The verb to be does not use did: I wasn't tired, Were you tired?
- Time expressions (yesterday, last week, two days ago) and sequencing words (first, then, after that, finally) make a past story clear.
- A short narrative paragraph = when/where + events in order + how you felt.
Key vocabulary
| Word / phrase | Meaning in this topic |
|---|---|
| simple past | The tense for finished actions in the past. |
| base form | The verb with no ending: go, eat, study, watch. |
| regular verb | A verb that adds -ed in the past. |
| irregular verb | A verb that changes form in the past (see → saw). |
| affirmative | A positive sentence: I played. |
| negative | A sentence with didn't: I didn't play. |
| short answer | Yes, I did. / No, I didn't. |
| time expression | Words that say when: yesterday, last night, two days ago. |
| sequencing words | Words that show order: first, then, after that, later, finally. |
| narrative paragraph | A short text that tells what happened, in order. |