PAST TENSE

P A S T   T E N S E
There are two tenses in English – past and present.

The past tense in English is used:

• to talk about the past
• to talk about hypotheses (when we imagine something)
• for politeness.

There are four past tense forms in English:

Past simple: I worked

Past continuous: I was working

Past perfect: I had worked

Past perfect continuous: I had been working

We use these forms:

• to talk about the past:

He worked at McDonald's. 

He was working at McDonald's. 

• to refer to the present or future in hypotheses:

It might be dangerous. Suppose they got lost.

This use is very common in wishes:

                    I wish it wasn't so cold.

and in conditions with if:

                  He could get a new job if he really tried.

                 If Jack was playing, they would probably win.

For hypotheses, wishes and conditions in the past, we use the past perfect:

               It was very dangerous. What if you had got lost?

               I wish I hadn't spent so much money last month.

               I would have helped him if he had asked.

and also to talk about the present in a few polite expressions:

             Excuse me, I was wondering if this was the train for York.

              I just hoped you would be able to help me.
S I M P L E  P A S T

With most verbs, the past tense is formed by adding –ed:

called

liked

wanted

worked

But there are a lot of irregular past tense forms in English. Here are the most common irregular verbs in English, with their past tense forms:

Base form	Past tense
be begin break bring buy build choose come cost cut do draw drive eat feel find get give go have hear hold keep know leave lead let lie lose make mean meet pay put run say sell send set sit speak spend stand take teach tell think understand wear win write	was/were began broke brought bought built chose came cost cut did drew drove ate felt found got gave went had heard held kept knew left led let lay lost made meant met paid put ran said sold sent set sat spoke spent stood took taught told thought understood wore won wrote

We use the past tense to talk about:

• something that happened once in the past:

They got home very late last night.

• something that happened several times in the past:

When I was a boy, I walked a mile to school every day.
We swam a lot while we were on holiday.

• something that was true for some time in the past:

He enjoyed being a student.
She played a lot of tennis when she was younger.

• we often use expressions with ago with the past simple:

I met my wife a long time ago.

P A S T  S I M P L E: questions and negatives

We use did to make questions with the past simple:

Did she play tennis when she was younger?
When did you meet your wife?

But questions with who often don't use did:

Who discovered penicillin?
Who wrote Don Quixote?

We use didn't (did not) to make negatives with the past simple:

We didn't get home until very late last night.
I didn't see you yesterday. 

To better understand visit these links with exercises on the simple past topic.

https://www.curso-ingles.com/practicar/ejercicios/past-simple

https://www.educaplay.com/learning-resources/2928795-simple_past_tense_verbs.html