When to Use the Past Simple

The past simple is a tense that can sometimes get confused; a lot of English learners use the present simple instead to talk about the past. But if we are talking about something that happened in the past at a specific time, the simple past must be used. Here are some examples:

• I went to the shops yesterday (the action has finished, and it occurred at a specific time).
• I ate dinner two hours ago (the action is over, ‘two hours ago’ is a specific time).

It also sometimes get confused with the present perfect. As we use the past simple to talk about things at a specific time, we cannot use it with time expressions such as:

• This week
• This year
• This month
• This summer

Instead we use it with expressions such as:

• Yesterday
• Last week
• Last month
• Last year
• Two hours ago
• Three weeks ago

We also use the past simple to talk about habits and facts in the past. For example, you might say something along the lines of:

• When I was in school I was a good student. I liked playing lots of different sports and my favorite subjects were history and science.

The past simple is one of the easier tenses to use in English; you just have to remember to form the verbs correctly.

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