Introduction
The past simple is the tense used to express situations, events and actions that happened in the past.
When expressed in its interrogative form, it is used to ask questions about the past.
Form
The past simple of both regular and irregular* verbs in its interrogative form has this structure:
Did + subject + verb + …?
- Did is the past form of the verb do.
| Did | Subject | Verb | Question Mark |
|---|---|---|---|
| Did | I | work | …? |
| Did | you | work | …? |
| Did | he | work | …? |
| Did | she | work | …? |
| Did | it | work | …? |
| Did | we | work | …? |
| Did | you | work | …? |
| Did | they | work | …? |
*Questions and negatives of irregular verbs have the same structure as regular verbs.
Example
- Did you plant some flowers?
Did she finish her task?
- Did you sing in the church choir?
Did they play football at school? - Did he go to school last year?
Did they throw a party yesterday?
Use
We use past simple, in the interrogative form, to ask questions about:
- actions, situations and events that occurred and finished in the past;
- repeated events and habits that took place in the past;
- past events and with time expressions such as: two weeks ago, last year, in 2010, yesterday…
Summary
We use the past simple, in its interrogative form, to ask about situations that occurred and finished in the past.
When we use the past simple in its interrogative form, we start with did followed by the subject and the verb in its base form (the sentence ends with a question mark).
For example:
— “Did they work on an important project yesterday?” = The sentence is in the past simple interrogative, so we start with did and we use the base form of the verb to work (work).
Let’s revise this content within the {Form} section. Take a look at the {Example} section that shows its use within a context.