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Simple past (I did) в английском языке

Study this example:

Tom: Look! It's raining again.
Ann: Oh no, not again. It rained all day yesterday too.

Rained is the simple past tense. We use the simple past to talk about actions or situations in the past.


  • I enjoyed the party very much.

  • Mr. Brown died ten years ago.

  • When I lived in Athens, I worked in a bank.



Very often the simple past ends in -ed:


  • We invited them to our party, but they decided not to come.

  • The police stopped me on my way home last night.

  • She passed her exam because she studied very hard.



For spelling rules see this.

But many important verbs are irregular. This means that the simple past does not end in -ed:

leave → left We all left the party at 11:00.
go → went Last month I went to Rome to sec a friend of mine.
cost → cost This house cost $75,000 in 1980.


The past of the verb be (am/is/are) is was/were:

I/he/she/it was we/you/they were

I was angry because Tom and Ann were late.

For a list of irregular verbs see this.

In simple past questions and negatives we use did/didn't + the base form (do/open, etc.):

it rained	did it rain?	it didn't rain



  • Ann: Did you go out last night, Tom?
    Tom: Yes, I went to the movies. But I didn't enjoy it.

  • When did Mrs. Johnson die?

  • What did you do over the weekend?

  • We didn't invite her to the party, so she didn't come.

  • Why didn't you call me on Tuesday?



Note that we normally use did/didn't with have:


  • Did you have time to write the letter?

  • I didn't have enough money to buy anything to cat.



But we do not use did with the verb be (was/were):


  • Why were you so angry?

  • Was Mark at work yesterday?

  • They weren't able to come because they were very busy.