Editing Simple past (section)

==Formation==
Regular verbs form the simple past end''-ed''; however there are a few hundred [[List of English irregular verbs|irregular verbs]] with different forms.<ref name=":1" /> The spelling rules for forming the past simple of regular verbs are as follows: verbs ending in -e add only –d to the end (e.g. live – lived, not *liveed), verbs ending in -y change to -ied (e.g. study – studied) and verbs ending in a group of a consonant + a vowel + a consonant double the final consonant (e.g. stop – stopped).<ref name=":2">{{Cite web |title=Past simple – regular verbs |url=https://learnenglishteens.britishcouncil.org/grammar/a1-a2-grammar/past-simple-regular-verbs |access-date=2024-01-04 |website=Learn English Teens - British Council |language=en}}</ref> For details see {{slink|English verbs|Past tense}}.

Most verbs have a single form of the simple past, independent of the [[grammatical person|person]] or [[grammatical number|number]] of the subject (there is no addition of ''-s'' for the third person singular as in the [[simple present]]). However, the [[copula verb]] ''be'' has two past tense forms: ''was'' for the first and third persons singular, and ''were'' in other instances.<ref name=":0" /> The form ''were'' can also be used in place of ''was'' in conditional clauses and the like;<ref name=":3">{{Cite book |title=Longman grammar of spoken and written English |date=2012 |publisher=Longman |isbn=978-0-582-23725-4 |editor-last=Biber |editor-first=Douglas |edition=10. impression |location=Harlow |chapter=Chapter 10: Verb and adjective complement clauses |editor-last2=Quirk |editor-first2=Randolph}}</ref> for information on this, see [[English subjunctive]]. This is the only case in modern English where a distinction in form is made between [[subject-auxiliary inversion|inversion]], [[negation (grammar)|negation]]s with ''not'', and emphatic forms of the simple past use the auxiliary ''did''.<ref name=":3" /> For details of this mechanism, see [[do-support|''do''-support]]. A full list of forms is given below, using the (regular) verb ''help'' as an example:
*Basic simple past:
**I/you/he/she/it/we/they '''helped'''
*Expanded (emphatic) simple past:
**I/you/he/she/it/we/they '''did help'''
*Question form:
**'''Did''' I/you/he/she/it/we/they '''help'''?
*Negative:
**I/you/he/she/it/we/they '''did not''' ('''didn't''') '''help'''
*Negative question:
**'''Did''' I/you/he/she/it/we/they '''not help'''? / '''Didn't''' I/you/he/she/it/we/they '''help'''?

Base form

Affirmative (+)
S +  verb(ed) + c

Negative (-)
S + did not ( didn't) + verb + C