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Past Simple Tense Grammar Exercises: Level A1-A2 (with Answers)

⏱ Time: 07:30 📝 Questions: 15 📊 Level: A1, A2 📚 Type: Grammar ⭐ XP: up to +14 (on pass)

Can you use Past Simple Tense correctly in everyday English? These 15 practice questions for Level A1-A2 go beyond memorisation — they put grammar concepts into realistic sentences and situations. Detailed explanations help you understand not just the what, but the why.

⏱ You have 07:30 to answer 15 questions. The timer only starts when you click Begin.

Q1  15
Q1 15

Question 1: Tom ___ to school yesterday.

Question 1 options
'Walked' is correct because regular verbs form the past simple by adding -ed to the base form. 'Walk' becomes 'walked' for a completed past action. 'Walk' is present tense, 'is walking' is present continuous, and 'walks' is present simple.
Q2 15

Question 2: We ___ pizza for dinner last night.

Question 2 options
'Ate' is correct because 'eat' is an irregular verb and its past simple form is 'ate'. 'Eated' and 'eaten' are not correct past simple forms, and 'eat' is the base form, not past tense.
Q3 15

Question 3: To form the past simple of a regular verb, you add -ed to the base form.

Question 3 options
True because regular verbs in the past simple always take the -ed ending (e.g., play → played, walk → walked). This is the standard rule for regular verb formation.
Q4 15

Question 4: Which situation correctly uses the past simple tense?

Question 4 options
The past simple describes a completed action in the past. 'She called her mum last night' describes a finished past action. The other options describe ongoing actions, future plans, or present habits.
Q5 15

Question 5: Arrange the words to make a correct sentence:

Question 5 options
  • football
  • played
  • She
  • in the park

Drag items or use arrows to arrange them in the correct order.

The correct order is 'She played football in the park' because past simple follows Subject + past verb + object/place structure.
Q6 15

Question 6: Which sentence is correct?

Question 6 options
'They watched a movie last night' is correct because the past simple of a regular verb ends in -ed. 'Watchd' is misspelled, 'watch' is base form, and 'watching' is a participle without an auxiliary verb.
Q7 15

Question 7: A: Did you go to the party? B: No, I ___ at home all evening.

Question 7 options
'Stayed' is correct because the response describes a completed past action, and 'stay' is a regular verb that takes -ed in the past simple. 'Stay' is base form, 'staying' lacks an auxiliary, and 'have stayed' is present perfect, not past simple.
Q8 15

Question 8: Which sentence correctly uses the past simple (not the present simple)?

Question 8 options
'He went to the shop yesterday' uses the past simple with the time marker 'yesterday' and the irregular past form 'went'. The other options use present tense forms or present continuous.
Q9 15

Question 9: Put the words in the correct order:

Question 9 options
  • the film
  • Did
  • see
  • last week?
  • she

Drag items or use arrows to arrange them in the correct order.

The correct order is 'Did she see the film last week?' because past simple questions begin with Did + subject + base verb + object + time phrase.
Q10 15

Question 10: He ___ not go to the shop. He was tired.

Question 10 options
'Did' is correct because negative sentences in the past simple use 'did not' (didn't) + base verb. 'Does' is present tense, 'was' forms a different structure, and 'do' is present tense.
Q11 15

Question 11: Which statement about the past simple tense is true?

Question 11 options
In past simple questions, the base form of the verb is used after 'did', not the past form. 'Did he went?' is incorrect; 'Did he go?' is correct. The auxiliary 'did' already shows the past tense.
Q12 15

Question 12: Rewrite in the past simple negative: 'They played tennis.' → They ___ tennis.

Question 12 options
'Did not play' is correct because negative past simple uses did + not + base form of the verb. 'Played not' is incorrect word order, 'not played' is missing 'did', and 'didn't played' incorrectly uses the past form after 'didn't'.
Q13 15

Question 13: Match each sentence to the correct grammar label.

Question 13 options
She stopped the car and got out.
He walked to work every day last year.
They went to the beach last summer.
Did you see the match yesterday?
Single completed past action with irregular verb
Past habit using regular verb
Past simple question form
Sequence of completed past actions

Select an item on the left, then tap its match on the right.

Past simple is used for: completed single past actions, sequences of past events, past habits, and irregular verb forms in the past.
Q14 15

Question 14: For verbs ending in a consonant + 'y' (e.g. 'cry'), you add -ed directly to make the past simple (e.g. 'cryed').

Question 14 options
False because when a verb ends in a consonant + 'y', the 'y' changes to 'i' before adding -ed. So 'cry' becomes 'cried', not 'cryed'. This is an important spelling rule for regular verbs.
Q15 15

Question 15: Which sentence best describes a finished past action with a specific time?

Question 15 options
'I visited my aunt last Sunday' is best because it uses the past simple with the specific time marker 'last Sunday', showing a completed past action. The other options describe present or ongoing actions, or use the wrong tense.