Simple Past tense is used when the action is simply mentioned and understood to have taken place in the past. The action started and ended sometime in the past but the time may or may not be mentioned.
• Structure for Simple Past •
| subject |
main verb |
| subject |
past form |
| I |
went to college. |
• Structure for Negative sentence •
| subject |
auxiliary verb |
main verb |
| subject |
did + not |
base form |
| I |
did not |
go to college. |
• Structure for interrogative sentence •
| auxiliary verb |
subject |
main verb |
| Did |
subject |
base form |
| Did |
you |
go to college? |
In Simple Past Tense it does not matter how long ago the action has taken place: it can be a few minutes or seconds in the past, or millions of years in the past. Also it does not matter how long the event is. It can be a few milliseconds (bomb explosion) or millions of years (Jurassic time).
We normally use the simple past tense when:
 |
the event is in the past. |
|
the event is completely finished. |
|
we say the time or place of the event. |
|
