What is Simple past tense?

The past indefinite tense or past simple, sometimes called the preterit, is the basic form of the past tense in present English. It is used principally to describe events in the past, even though it also has some other uses.

The term ‘simple‘ is used to distinguish the syntactical construction whose basic form uses the plain past tense alone, from other past tense constructions which use auxiliaries in combination with participles, such as the past perfect and past progressive.

*The simple past tense is used to denote an action completed in the past. It often occurs with adverbs or adverb phrases of past time.

The steamer sailed yesterday.

I received his letter a week ago.

She left school last year.

*Sometimes this tense is used without an adverb of time. In such cases the time may be either implied or indicated by the context.

I learnt Hindi in Nagpur.

I didn’t sleep well.

Babar defeated Rana Sanga at Kanwaha.

*The Simple Past is also used for past habits; as,

He studied many hours every day.

She always carried an Umbrella.

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