Definition of the simple past tense The simple past tense, sometimes called the preterite, is used to talk about a completed action in a time before now . The simple past is the basic form of past tense in English. The time of the action can be in the recent past or the distant past and action duration is not important. Examples John Cabot sailed to America in 1498. My father died last year. He lived in Fiji in 1976. We crossed the Channel yesterday. You always use the simple past when you say when something happened, so it is associated with certain past time expressions frequency : often, sometimes, always I sometimes walked home at lunchtime. I often brought my lunch to school. a definite point in time : last week, when I was a child, yesterday, six weeks ago We saw a good film last week . Yesterday , I arrived in Geneva. She fin...