Processing math: 100%
Skip to main content
Library homepage
 

Text Color

Text Size

 

Margin Size

 

Font Type

Enable Dyslexic Font
Humanities LibreTexts

5: Past Tenses in English

( \newcommand{\kernel}{\mathrm{null}\,}\)

Past Tense Meanings of Verbs in English

Simple Past Tense:  Used to describe actions or activities that began and ended in the past.  Its emphasis is on the action itself and not on the action's relationship to another action in the past.  It simply says, "This happened."

Examples:

I went to the store yesterday, bought some milk and eggs, and returned home.
The United States fought in World War Two.  Thousands of soldiers died in Asia.
My father drove a cab for many years.  He only had one accident in all the years that he drove cabs for a living.
My son got up this morning, ate breakfast, and left for school.


This page titled 5: Past Tenses in English is shared under a CC BY-NC 4.0 license and was authored, remixed, and/or curated by Don Bissonnette.

  • Was this article helpful?

Support Center

How can we help?