{"id":914,"date":"2016-09-09T19:18:07","date_gmt":"2016-09-10T03:18:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.hollytreeenglish.com\/?p=914"},"modified":"2016-09-09T19:23:24","modified_gmt":"2016-09-10T03:23:24","slug":"use-simple-past-tense-completed-actions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hollytreeenglish.com\/home\/use-simple-past-tense-completed-actions\/","title":{"rendered":"Use Simple Past Tense for Completed Actions","gt_translate_keys":[{"key":"rendered","format":"text"}]},"content":{"rendered":"<h1>Yesterday\u2019s Actions<\/h1>\n<p>I did several things yesterday. I ate breakfast, lunch, and dinner. I did some teaching. And my niece and nephew helped me train my dog. But I was a little bit of a bad girl because I didn\u2019t write in my blog. What did you do yesterday?<\/p>\n<h1>The Easiest Use of Past Tense<\/h1>\n<p>I know you are not reading this blog post to learn about my day. But it is a good demonstration of the easiest and most common way of using simple past tense in English: talking about completed actions. Do you remember the post about past structures? Did you recognize some of them from my story? If not, feel free to pause here and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hollytreeenglish.com\/young-using-past-simple-structures\/\">read the post again<\/a>. Then continue reading this one.<\/p>\n<h1>Completed Actions<\/h1>\n<p>The biggest reason we need past tense in English is to talk\/write about an action that happened in the past. Maybe it is an action you did.<\/p>\n<p>I ate breakfast, lunch, and dinner.<\/p>\n<p>I did some teaching.<\/p>\n<p>Maybe it is an action another person\/other people did.<\/p>\n<p>And my niece and nephew helped me to train my dog.<\/p>\n<p>Of course, simple past can be used to talk about things that didn\u2019t happen.<\/p>\n<p>But I was a little bit of a bad girl because I didn\u2019t write in my blog.<\/p>\n<p>Finally, we can ask questions about past actions.<\/p>\n<p>What did you do yesterday?<\/p>\n<h1>The Rules<\/h1>\n<p>If the action is finished, or if you use a past time word\/phrase, use simple past tense. It is so easy, right. Something about English has to be easy.<\/p>\n<h1>Your Turn<\/h1>\n<p>but now it is time for the hard part. You must practice. Leave a comment to tell me what you did yesterday or another time in the past. Did you study English, spend time with your family, go to work?<\/p>\n","protected":false,"gt_translate_keys":[{"key":"rendered","format":"html"}]},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Yesterday\u2019s Actions I did several things yesterday. I ate breakfast, lunch, and dinner. I did some teaching. And my niece and nephew helped me train my dog. But I was a little bit of a bad girl because I didn\u2019t write in my blog. What did you do yesterday? The Easiest Use of Past Tense<br \/><a class=\"moretag\" href=\"https:\/\/www.hollytreeenglish.com\/home\/use-simple-past-tense-completed-actions\/\">+ Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false,"gt_translate_keys":[{"key":"rendered","format":"html"}]},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_bbp_topic_count":0,"_bbp_reply_count":0,"_bbp_total_topic_count":0,"_bbp_total_reply_count":0,"_bbp_voice_count":0,"_bbp_anonymous_reply_count":0,"_bbp_topic_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_reply_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_forum_subforum_count":0,"_piecal_is_event":false,"_piecal_start_date":"","_piecal_end_date":"","_piecal_is_allday":false,"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"sync_status":"none","episode_type":"","audio_file":"","podmotor_file_id":"","podmotor_episode_id":"","castos_file_data":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","itunes_episode_number":"","itunes_title":"","itunes_season_number":"","itunes_episode_type":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[27,11,28,1],"tags":[],"series":[],"class_list":["post-914","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-articles","category-for-students-of-english","category-grammar-explanation","category-home"],"acf":[],"episode_featured_image":false,"episode_player_image":"https:\/\/www.hollytreeenglish.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/English-Like-An-Eagle-2.jpg","download_link":"","player_link":"","audio_player":false,"episode_data":{"playerMode":"dark","subscribeUrls":{"apple_podcasts":{"key":"apple_podcasts","url":"https:\/\/podcasts.apple.com\/us\/podcast\/english-like-an-eagle\/id1534350389","label":"Apple Podcasts","class":"apple_podcasts","icon":"apple-podcasts.png"},"google_play":{"key":"google_play","url":"https:\/\/podcasts.google.com\/feed\/aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuaG9sbHl0cmVlZW5nbGlzaC5jb20vZmVlZC9wb2RjYXN0","label":"Google Play","class":"google_play","icon":"google-play.png"},"google_podcasts":{"key":"google_podcasts","url":"https:\/\/podcasts.google.com\/feed\/aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuaG9sbHl0cmVlZW5nbGlzaC5jb20vZmVlZC9wb2RjYXN0","label":"Google Podcasts","class":"google_podcasts","icon":"google-podcasts.png"},"pandora":{"key":"pandora","url":"","label":"Pandora","class":"pandora","icon":"pandora.png"},"rss":{"key":"rss","url":"","label":"RSS","class":"rss","icon":"rss.png"},"spotify":{"key":"spotify","url":"https:\/\/open.spotify.com\/show\/2wxVzF27hyETfyop2KgzEs","label":"Spotify","class":"spotify","icon":"spotify.png"},"youtube":{"key":"youtube","url":"","label":"YouTube","class":"youtube","icon":"youtube.png"},"itunes":{"key":"itunes","url":"https:\/\/podcasts.apple.com\/us\/podcast\/english-like-an-eagle\/id1534350389","label":"iTunes","class":"itunes","icon":"itunes.png"}},"rssFeedUrl":"https:\/\/www.hollytreeenglish.com\/home\/feed\/podcast\/english-like-an-eagle","embedCode":"<blockquote class=\"wp-embedded-content\" data-secret=\"vrqxgU97wU\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.hollytreeenglish.com\/home\/use-simple-past-tense-completed-actions\/\">Use Simple Past Tense for Completed Actions<\/a><\/blockquote><iframe sandbox=\"allow-scripts\" security=\"restricted\" src=\"https:\/\/www.hollytreeenglish.com\/home\/use-simple-past-tense-completed-actions\/embed\/#?secret=vrqxgU97wU\" width=\"500\" height=\"350\" title=\"&#8220;Use Simple Past Tense for Completed Actions&#8221; &#8212; HollyTreeEnglish\" data-secret=\"vrqxgU97wU\" frameborder=\"0\" marginwidth=\"0\" marginheight=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\" class=\"wp-embedded-content\"><\/iframe><script type=\"text\/javascript\">\n\/* <![CDATA[ *\/\n\/*! 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At that time, I had no training, but I enjoyed the students and tried my best to help them. Last year, I started HollyTreeEnglish and this blog. An nine months ago, I began offering public classes\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Articles&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Articles","link":"https:\/\/www.hollytreeenglish.com\/home\/category\/for-students-of-english\/articles\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":68,"url":"https:\/\/www.hollytreeenglish.com\/home\/understanding-english-tenses\/","url_meta":{"origin":914,"position":1},"title":"Understanding English Tenses","author":"Holly","date":"March 5, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"Tenses in English \u00a0 There are 12 tenses in English. Each tense has two parts, time and aspect. \u00a0 Time \u00a0 The time part of a tense talks about where in time\u00a0your sentence\u00a0is located:\u00a0the past, (before now), the present, (now or close to now), and future, (at a time after\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Articles&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Articles","link":"https:\/\/www.hollytreeenglish.com\/home\/category\/for-students-of-english\/articles\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":682,"url":"https:\/\/www.hollytreeenglish.com\/home\/young-using-past-simple-structures\/","url_meta":{"origin":914,"position":2},"title":"When I was Young: Using Past Simple Structures","author":"Holly","date":"May 27, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"When I was Young When I was a young girl, I did not like pop music very much. I began learning to sing Irish and Scottish folk songs. I loved the sounds of the instruments, and I enjoyed copying the singers\u2019 accents. 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I also received some as\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Articles&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Articles","link":"https:\/\/www.hollytreeenglish.com\/home\/category\/for-students-of-english\/articles\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":918,"url":"https:\/\/www.hollytreeenglish.com\/home\/use-simple-past-tense-tell-story\/","url_meta":{"origin":914,"position":4},"title":"Use Simple past Tense to Tell a Story","author":"Holly","date":"September 9, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Birthday Fun On my last birthday, I took the day off from work. My mom took me out for breakfast. Soon after, I went to the electronics store with my dad because he and I like to look at computers and other technology. 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