The simple past tense is used to talk about a completed action or state that occurred in the past. To form this tense, you simply add -ed to the end of the verb, as long as it is a regular verb. For example, the past tense of "to walk" is walked. Be sure you use the simple past whenever you say that something happened in the past. For example, "I talked to her yesterday."
There are many irregular verbs in the simple past tense, however. For example, the past tense of "to have" is had. The past tense of "to do" is did. "To be" is especially tricky, because we say I/he/she/it was and you/we/they were.
To form the negative in the simple past tense, we put did not before the base form of the main verb, as in, "I did not see a movie last night." Did not is often shortened to didn't, especially in spoken English. With the verb "to be," we use was not, as in, "I was not happy with the film."
Simple Past Tense Grammar Quiz
Simple Past Tense Lessons: