When we talk about things that have already happened, we use the past tense. It's how we tell stories, share memories, and explain events that are finished. To do this in English, we change the verb. For example, instead of saying "I walk to school," you'd say "I walked to school yesterday."

The easiest way to form the past tense is with regular verbs. For most of these, you just add "-ed" to the end of the base verb. The verb "walk" becomes "walked." The verb "play" becomes "played."

There are a few simple spelling rules to keep in mind when you do this.

Many common verbs in English are irregular. They don't follow the "-ed" rule. Unfortunately, there's no simple trick for these—you just have to learn them. With a little practice, they'll become second nature.

One of the most important irregular verbs is "to be." In the present tense, we say "I am," "you are," or "he is." In the past tense, these change to "was" and "were."

• was is used for singular subjects (I, he, she, it).
• were is used for plural subjects (we, you, they) and also for the singular "you."

Here are some other common irregular verbs.

Once you know how to form the past tense of a verb, you can use it in sentences. Let's look at how to make positive statements, negative statements, and questions.

For affirmative (or positive) sentences, the structure is straightforward: Subject + Past Verb. For example, "He walked home" or "They ate pizza."

To make a sentence negative, we use the helper verb "did" along with "not." The main verb then goes back to its original base form. This is a very important rule to remember.

The same rule applies when asking a question. We start the sentence with "Did," and the main verb returns to its base form.

This rule about did not and Did doesn't apply to the verb "to be." For negatives, you just add "not" after "was" or "were" (wasn't, weren't). For questions, you move "was" or "were" to the beginning of the sentence.

• She was not late.
• Were they at the party?

Ready to check your understanding? Let's try a few questions.

Using the past tense correctly is a key step in speaking English clearly. Keep practicing with regular and irregular verbs, and soon you'll be telling your own stories with confidence.