INTRODUCTION ON PAST SIMPLE

PAST SIMPLE TENSE................

 

It is used for a single event (or sequence of such events) in the past, and also for past habitual action. The simple past or past simple, sometimes called the preterite, is the basic form of the past tense in Modern English. It is used principally to describe events in the past, although it also has some other uses.

The past simple is most often used in writing, and also refers to an action or event that was completed in the past. English uses verbs in the simple past tense to refer to actions, situations, or events that are finished and that happened before now. There are three ways to form simple past tense in English. One way is what happens with the verb be: it uses the special forms was and were. Another way is what happens with regular verbs. (They are called regular because they all add the same ending--ed--or some variation on it.) and there are a few hundred irregular verbs with different forms.

ADDITIONAL SOURCE FOR READING:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Past_simple_tense 

Examples: 

1-He took the money and ran.

2-I visited them every day for a year.

3-I knew how to fight even as a child.