Simple Past Tense and Adverbs of Time

Simple past tense is formed by using the past tense of the verb. 

Be careful; don't use the past participle. 

Look at the verb forms in these sentences:

I drink coffee. Drink is the base form of the verb.

I drank coffee yesterday. Drank is the past tense form of the verb.

I have drunk too much coffee. Drunk is the past participle form of the verb. Past participles can also be used as adjectives, as we know from the phrase, "My drunk friend thinks you're cute."

You can't say, "Yesterday I drunk coffee," or "I drunk too much coffee," because that is wrong.

When do we use simple past? We use simple past to talk about actions that began and ended at a specific time in the past. To use simple past correctly, it's important to give the time the action happened by using an adverb of time. In these examples, the simple past tense verbs are red and the adverbs of time are blue.

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