The past simple is used to talk about actions that have been completed in the past. We use it for single actions (things that happened once), for example, “We w a t c h e d a film last night.”. We use it for two or more actions that happened at a similar time in the past, for example, “I w e n t to the party and I a t e some pizza.”.
This is the basic past tense. We use it whenever we want to talk about the past and we don't have any special situation that means we should use the past perfect, present perfect or past continuous. Finished actions, states or habits in the past. 1: We use it with finished actions, states or habits in the past when we have a finished time word
For past-tense stories, the narrative for our story’s present is already in the past tense. So we have to use past perfect tense to indicate a further jump back in time for when an event happened earlier in our story’s timeline. With past-tense stories, if our narrative is describing: Current Events: Use past tense: I jumped over the fence
Read this text about the old colonel. Then use the answer prompts to write questions using either the present perfect or the past simple. I think I have had a very interesting life. I'm 73 now and I don't work anymore. I was in the army for 51 years. I retired when I was 69. I have been to so many countries that I can't remember all of them.
The past simple is used to express something that happened at a past point in time. Remember to always use a past time expression, or a clear contextual clue when using the past simple. If you do not indicate when something happened, use the present perfect for unspecified past. This tense is often used with the following time expressions:
. 208 296 320 137 44 267 314 188
how to use past simple and present perfect
