Simple Past Tense for Cambodian Students (Easy Rules + Examples + Worksheet)

What is Simple Past Tense?

Simple Past tense is one of the English tenses that is frequently used in daily life. Simple Past tense is used to talk about an action that happened and finished at a specific time in the past. It is formed by using simple past verb and the past time expressions. This lesson is a perfect bonus for Cambodian students since there is simple Khmer explanation and examples. 

Here are what you will be learning and practicing in this lesson:

• Simple usage of simple past tense with Khmer and English explanation.
• Easy forms of simple past tense + examples
• Easy rules of changing simple present to  simple past. ( Adding -d, -ed, -ied) 
• Practices
• Free simple past tense worksheet pdf

Easy usage of Simple Past Tense ( Khmer Explanation) 

Simple Past Tense is used to talk about the action that happened and finished at a specific time in the past. Time expressions is always used to express time in the past. Here are some of the past expressions used with simple past tense.

• Yesterday : 
• Last : night, week, year, month, century
• In 2000, in 1980, in 2025
• Ago : 3 hours ago, 10 years go

Simple Past Tense - Forms + Examples

Positive : Sub + Ved ......past time expressions.

• I went to bed late last night.
• They lived in the countryside in 2000.
• She cried so hard yesterday.
• We played soccer happily last weekend.
• Dinosaurs existed on earth 1 million years ago.

Negative :  Sub + didn't + base verb (V1).

Changing present to past spelling rules

Rule 1 : Add -d to the verb that ends in -e.

- love > loved

- like > liked

- hate > hated 

- move > moved

Rule 2 : change y > -ied when a verb ends in consonant + y

- study > studied

- cry > cried

- fry > fried

- try > tried

Rule 3 : add red if the verb doesn't follow rule 1 and 2.

- visit > visited

- stay > stayed

- stop > stopped

- watch > watched 

Irregular Verbs

- go >went

- see > saw

- meet > met

- eat > ate

- pay > paid

- spend > spent

- drink > drank

- speak > spoke

- do > did

- have > had

- am/is > was

- are > were

Example

• I visited Angkor Wat Temple in 2010.
• They played soccer last week.
• She wanted TV last night.
• My mom watered the plant this morning.
• My brother didn't do his homework last night.
• She didn't go to the movie last week.
• Did you go to bed late last night?
• Did they play soccer last week?
• What did you do yesterday?
• Who did she talk to a moment ago?

Practices

Gap-Filling Practice: Simple Past (Regular Verbs)
Write the correct past form of the verb in brackets.

1. She ______ (watch) a movie last night.
2. They ______ (wash) their clothes yesterday.
3. He ______ (fix) his bicycle yesterday afternoon.
4. We ______ (mix) the ingredients for the cake.
5. The teacher ______ (pass) the test papers to students.
6. My father ______ (push) the heavy table into the room.
7. The dog ______ (chase) the cat this morning.
8. The baby ______ (cry) loudly last night.
9. She ______ (carry) the books to the classroom.
10. They ______ (study) English for the test yesterday.
11. He ______ (try) to open the door.
12. We ______ (copy) the sentences from the board.
13. The students ______ (hurry) to school in the morning.
14. She ______ (reply) to the email last night.
15. The boy ______ (play) football after school.
16. They ______ (stay) at home yesterday.
17. She ______ (enjoy) the music at the party.
18. The teacher ______ (explain) the lesson clearly.
19. We ______ (visit) our grandparents last weekend.
20. He ______ (finish) his homework before dinner.

Simple Past Tense Quiz