Past Indefinite is the past indefinite tense, which is also called Past Simple. It is used to express actions that have taken place or have already taken place in the past. Tense is used to describe past events and conditions.

The formation of the past simple tense requires students to know about three basic ones: the Infinitive (the infinitive form of the verb, which is easily recognized by the particle to), Past Indefinite (the form of the past indefinite tense) and Past Participle

Regular and irregular verbs

Depending on how verbs form Past Indefinite and Past Participle, they are divided into two groups: regular and irregular. Since the English language tends to simplify, most verbs belong to the group of regular verbs. There are also verbs that have both regular and irregular Past Simple and Past Participle forms:

to spell - spelled - spelled (correct) or to spell - spelled - spelled (wrong)

to wake - woken - awakened (correct) or to wake - woke - woken (incorrect)

Frequently used irregular verbs are in special tables; they must be learned by heart. And when you encounter a new verb, you should check in the dictionary the translation, transcription and which group of verbs it belongs to: whether it is regular or incorrect.

Past Indefinite Tense. Rules for forming the affirmative form for regular verbs

Most verbs in English belong to the group of regular verbs and are formed according to general principles. To form the affirmative form Past Indefinite Tense of regular verbs, -ed is added to the infinitive form without the particle to.

• to smoke - He smoked last year (He smoked last year).
• to kiss - Mary kissed her doll and closed little door in dollhouse (The girl kissed the doll and closed the little door of the dollhouse).
• to open - We opened the window yesterday (We opened the window yesterday).
• to clean - Students cleaned the rooms last week (Students cleaned the rooms last week).

Pronunciation - ed

• after voiceless sounds -ed is pronounced as [t] - worked, cooked, finished;
• after the sounds t, d - like - ended, started;
• after other sounds (voiced and vowels), like [d] - changed, cleaned, arrived.

When -edis added to the infinitive form of the verb, the following rules apply:

• If the verb ends in silent -e, only -d is added.

to close - closed

to love - loved (to love)

• The ending -y changes to -i if there is a consonant before -y.

to try - tried (try, try)

to cry - cried (cry)

• If there is a vowel before -y, then -ed is added unchanged.

to play - played (play)

to obey - obeyed (obey)

• In monosyllabic verbs with a short vowel, the consonant is doubled.

to stop - stopped

to rob - robbed (rob)

• If in a two-syllable verb the stress falls on the second syllable with a short vowel sound, the consonant is also doubled.

to permit - permitted (allow)

• The ending -l is doubled in British spelling rules, in which case the accent does not matter.

to travel - traveled (to travel)

to cancel - canceled

Formation rules for the affirmative form of irregular verbs

There are no specific rules for the formation of Past Indefinite irregular verbs, since they have preserved the historical features of formation. To make it easier to remember irregular verbs, they are divided into several groups, depending on the way in which they form these two forms.

• Changes in root vowels (to dig - dug - dug, to meet - met - met, to drink - drank - drunk).

Children met their friend yesterday. The children met their friend yesterday.

• Infinitive endings (to bend - bent - bent, build - built - built).

My father built that house in 1980. My father built this house in 1980.

• Adding other endings (not -ed) and changing root vowels (to fall - fell - fallen).

Massive meteorite fell last night. A huge meteorite fell last week.

• Some verbs do not change, they remain the same in all three forms (to put - put - put).

I put the book on the shelf yesterday. I put the book on the shelf yesterday.

Formation of the interrogative form

The interrogative form is formed using the verb to do (in Past Indefinite - did), which is placed before the subject.

• Did you play tennis last summer? Did you play tennis last summer?
• Did she graduate from the University in 2000? She graduated from university in 2000?
• Did we meet two years ago? We met two years ago?

Using did no longer requires any action with the semantic verb. We do not add -ed to regular verbs and do not refer to the table of irregular verbs. The form did is used in singular and plural for all persons.

Negative form formation

The auxiliary verb did with the particle not is used to form the negative form Past Indefinite tense.

• Our teacher did not explain the spelling of adjectives. Our teacher did not explain the spelling rules of adjectives.
• She did not drink coffee yesterday. She didn't drink coffee yesterday.
• They did not study last winter. They didn't study last winter.

In colloquial speech, the short negative form didn't is used.

I didn't watch TV yesterday. Yesterday I didn't watch TV.

In short answers to questions for all singular and plural persons, the affirmative form is used - Yes, I did and the negative form - No, I didn't.

Did you go to school yesterday? Yes, I did./No, I didn't. Did you go to school yesterday? Yes/No.

Verb to be in past tense

The verb to be is an auxiliary verb and a linking verb in its role in the sentence and in meaning. It serves to form tense forms of semantic verbs and to form a compound nominal predicate.

To form the interrogative and negative forms of the verb to be, the auxiliary verb to do is not used.

• Was she in an office yesterday? Was she in the office yesterday?
• Was your mother in bank two days ago? Was your mom at the bank two days ago?
• She was not at the party last week. She wasn't at the party last week.

The verb to be also has a plural form in the Past Indefinite. The rules for its use are as follows: were is used with the first, second and third person plural (we - we, you - you, they - they).

• Were they at work last Sunday? Were they at work last Sunday?
• We were not in an office last week. We were out of the office last week.

In colloquial speech, short forms of the verb in the past tense are used: wasn"t and weren't."

When is Past Indefinite used? Rules and examples

• Past Simple is used to express past actions with time indicators: yesterday, last Monday, three weeks ago, a year ago, in 2001.

We visited his grandmother yesterday. We visited his grandmother yesterday.

• We also use the Past Simple when we ask questions about time with the question word when.

When did you visit his grandmother? When were you at his grandmother's?

• Past Indefinite is used when the time is not specified, but it is assumed that it has already elapsed.

My husband once saw My husband once saw Amy Winehouse (Since the singer died and the husband will no longer be able to see her, we use Past Indefinite Active).

• In addition, the past simple tense is used in main sentences with direct speech. And when formed in a subordinate clause, the future tense cannot be used; accordingly, it turns into Future Indefinite in the Past or other tenses of the Future-in-the-Past group, depending on what future tense was used in the original sentence.

She told: "Mr Smith will send a letter."

She told Mr Smith would send a letter. She said Mr. Brown would send a letter.

• When we talk about past habitual or regularly repeated actions, we use Past Indefinite. The rules for using the equivalents used to and would are described below.

Her sister always carried a little umbrella. Her sister always carried a small umbrella with her.

But more often in these cases used to is used.

Her sister used to carry a little umbrella. Her sister carried a small umbrella with her.

When is used to used in English?

To express habitual and repeated actions or events in the past, the phrase used to is used along with the past tense. This construction is used in spoken and literary language. Used to expresses both states and repeated actions in the past, unlike another past tense equivalent, the verb would, which can only be used to express actions in the past and is never used to express states.

My friend used to drink 3 cups of coffee and smoke 20 cigarettes a day. A friend of mine once drank three cups of coffee and smoked twenty cigarettes a day.

My grandmother used to walk ten kilometers when she was younger (Action in the past tense). My grandmother used to walk ten kilometers when she was younger.

My grandmother would walk ten kilometers when she was younger (Action in the past tense). My grandmother walked ten kilometers when she was younger.

My teacher used to live in London (State in past tense). My teacher lived in London.

It should be noted that would + Infinitive without the particle to is often used with phrases indicating the time of action.

Affirmative, negative and interrogative forms used to

To form the affirmative form of the phrase, use the verb use in the past tense with the particle to and the infinitive form of the semantic verb.

My son used to play chess on Sundays. My son played chess on Sundays (Now he doesn't play chess on Sundays, but goes to football or has a barbecue).

The negative form is formed using the verb do in the past tense and the particle not. The verb use is in the present tense, since the form did already signals the past. In colloquial speech, the short form of negation is more often used.

Our teacher did not use to give us a lot of homework/Our teacher didn't use to give us a lot of homework. Our teacher didn't give us a lot of homework.

To form the interrogative form, the verb to do is also used in the past tense.

Did she use to embroider in the evening? Did she embroider in the evenings?

It is necessary to pay due attention to the study of the Past Indefinite tense form and its equivalents, since they are widely used in spoken and written general and business English.

We already know how to express regular and ordinary actions of the present time, now it’s time to learn how to write stories about the past. In English, simple combinations of the past are represented by the form past indefinite or past simple, examples of which are found in almost every dialogue. Today we will analyze the construction of this tense, possible types of sentences and the nuances of exceptions. This category is more difficult than the present simple , but it also has grammatical features similar to it.

As in other tenses, this aspect is characterized by the formation of several types of expressions.

Affirmative

Interrogative

But asking questions using one verb in English will not work at all. Let's remember how the present simple behaves in such situations and make sentences in the past simple according to the model. Examples:

• Do you read this magazine? –Youyou're readingthismagazine?(Present tense)
• Does your sister watch the cartoons? –Yourssisterlookscartoons?(Present tense)

To give the expression context of the past, it is necessary to change only one element - the auxiliary verb do. Moreover, if in the present tense it has two options, then for the past it is even simpler - in all persons the form did is used.

• Did you read this magazine? –Youreadthismagazine?(Past tense)
• Did your sister watch the cartoons? –Yourssisterwatchedcartoons?(Past tense)

As you can see, the construction is very simple, but many people make a common mistake - they put the main verb in the past tense. Remember, past tense questions are always formed using did and simple infinitive !

• Did we buy five or six books? –Webought 5 or 6books?

Please note once again: used buy, but under no circumstances Notbought!

Special questions, that is, phrases with special question words, are also very popular in English. They move did and take first place in the sentence.

• Where did they walk yesterday? -Where did they go yesterday?

There are examples of other question constructions for the past simple, but we will look at them a little later.

Negative

When creating negatives, we will also draw an analogy with the present simple.

Examples

• She doesn't paint portraits –SheNotdrawsportraits.(Present tense)
• I don't drink lemonadeINotI drinklemonade.(Present tense)

To change the present to the past, we manipulate the combination do/does+not, turning it into did + not, the same for all persons.

• She didn't 't paint portraits“She didn’t paint portraits.”(Past tense)
• I didn't 't drink lemonade– I didn’t drink lemonade.(Past tense)

Everything ingenious is simple, and there is nothing more to add on the topic of a negative sentence in the past indefinite.

Interrogative-negative

It's time to study the previously mentioned interrogative combinations. In this case, they are represented by a combination of question and denial. Such phrases are often used in colloquial speech when we want to clarify something with our interlocutor. Let us give examples of such expressions immediately in the past tense.

Examples

• Didn 't you call me? -Didn't you call me?
• Did they not go tothecinema? – Didn’t they go to the movies?

Pay attention to how not behaves in shortened and full constructions.

There is also the concept of dividing questions. They are very similar to regular statements, only they have a small tail at the end. “ did?” , which can be translated as “yes?”, “isn’t it?”

• You read thisarticle, didn't 't you ? – You read this article, didn’t you?
• They didn't play tennis did they? They didn't play tennis, right?

To use such questions, remember the rule: if the sentence is affirmative, then the tail will be negative, and vice versa.

To be and have

We have already noted that irregular verbs behave in a special way when changing their form to the past simple. We won’t cover them all, but we’ll look at the two most important types: to be and have (in the British version, have got).

Pronouns	Infinitive	Past tense Past indefinite
		+	?	—
3 face unit +1 face unit: he, she, it, I		…was….	Was….?	...wasn't...
Plural: we, you, they		...were...	Were...?	...were not...
All pronouns	have	…had…	Did...have...? Didn't...have...?	…didn’t have… …didn’t have…

To reinforce this, here are a few examples of to be and has in the past simple and their translation.

Examples

As you can see, to be is transformed independently, and have requires an auxiliary did.

With this, we complete the study of grammatical structure and move on to considering cases of using simple pastes.

Situations of use

There are several situations characteristic of the simple past tense. The most popular case is a description of an action committed once in the past.

• We translated those sentences from Russian into English yesterday –YesterdayWetranslatedthoseoffersWithRussianonEnglish.
• 2016 was the year of the monkey. 2017 is the year of rooster – 2016wasyearmonkey. 2017 –yearrooster (Present Time).
  

Past indefinite is also used to express regular events that occurred in the past.

• My brother often painted cats and dogs in his childhood –MyBrotheroftendrewVchildhoodcatsAnddogs.
• LastyearI studied Englishtwiceaweek – Last year I studied English twice a week.

When listing past actions that were performed simultaneously, the simple past construction is also used.

• She bought apen, wrote apostcardand sent ittoherfriends “She bought a pen, wrote a postcard and sent it to her friends.
• I took a shower, called my girlfriend and went to sleep –Iacceptedshower,calledhisgirlAndlay downsleep.

This concludes the study of the theory. To make it easier to remember, a small table is presented below, which includes diagrams of past simple constructions and example sentences. In addition, it contains time circumstances - these are unique keywords by which you can easily determine that a past simple is used in a sentence.

Past simple example sentences and tense indicators

+	?	—
….IIverb form...	Did……infinitive…	…didn’t (didn’t)infinitive…
She signed the agreement. She signed this agreement. I bought a new flat last year. Last year I bought a new apartment. We sang a lot of songs at the karaoke club. We sang a lot of songs at the karaoke club.	Did they watch the movie? Have they seen this movie? Did he catch this bird? Did he catch this bird? Did you invite him to the party? Did you invite him to the party?	We didn't offer you this job. We did not offer you to change your car. You didn't write the report. You didn't write the report. I didn't run at the stadium last weekend. I didn't run at the stadium last weekend.
Unith….was… Mn.h...were...	Was...? Were...?	…wasn’t (wasn’t)… …were not (weren’t)…
I was at the gym. I was at the gym. They were right. They were right.	Was he angry? Was he angry? Were we at the cinema last month? We went to the cinema last month?	They weren't happy together. They weren't happy together. She wasn't born in London. He was not born in London.
Signal words: ago, long ago, last week (month, year), yesterday, in 1990 year, in those times.

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There are different ways to express the past tense in English. Each of them has its own patterns, having comprehended which, you will be able to easily convey the events of the past in English. One of the most “in demand” tenses is the Past Simple.

It is very easy to draw a parallel here with the Russian language. Everything that we are accustomed to attributing to the past is expressed by the Past Simple (Indefinite). That is why it is called simple time, which conveys ordinary actions and isolated facts.

Formation of Past Simple in English

As in any tense, all points of contact converge in the form of the verb and the use of the auxiliary verb. In an affirmative sentence, the predicate takes either ending ed (if the verb is correct), or it is used second form (2nd column of irregular verbs): V ed or V 2(with all faces the same) . To form questions or negatives, you need an auxiliary verb did. In the first case, it takes place before the subject, in the second - after + the particle not. It is important to note that the predicate verb returns to its primary person, i.e. infinitive without to. It is easy to see how the Past Simple is formed using a table.

Not only in colloquial speech, but also in writing they often use shortened form.

Important nuances

• The first thing I want to note is the verb to be. In principle, it is incorrect, therefore it has a second form (was - singular / were - plural). In affirmative sentences it is used like this, but negative and interrogative sentences are formed without did: wasn’t, weren’t. Despite the fact that it is semantic, no auxiliary verb or other semantic verb is used with it in the past simple.

We were at home last night. — We were at home last night.

I wasn't the best student. — I was not the best student.

Were you in a new club? — Have you been to the new club?

• The pronunciation of the ending ed changes. It all depends on the letters next to each other:

after voiceless consonants - [t] - worked

after voiced consonants and vowels [d] - used, enjoyed

after t/d — — studied, landed

• Features of writing. The second form of the verb will have to be learned by heart, there is no way to escape from it. And with the addition of ed, not everything is easy either. When adding this ending to a word, sometimes there are some changes that are important to know:

1. If the word ends in "y", and in front of her is consonant, then “y” changes to “i”+ ed: try-tried, hurry - hurried. But: pl a y-pla y ed.
2. If a verb has a letter at the end "e", then when adding ed, one of the “e” disappears: change - changed, dance - danced.
3. If the verb ends in I agree(except c, w, z) or — er, -ur, and in front of her short vowel, then the last letter is doubled: stop - stopped, plan-planned, omit-omitted, occur - occurred.
4. If the latter is « l", then it is also duplicated: travel - travelled, quarel - quarelled.
5. Ending with "With", the verb in this case adds and "k": panic - panicked.

Cases of use

The rules for Past Simple (Indefinite) are quite easy to understand. And there are not many of them.

1. First of all, I would like to highlight isolated events in the past, facts. This way we emphasize what happened and simply state the fact. Vivid clues of this time are words such as ago (back), last year/month/week (last year, month, week), yesterday (yesterday), the other day (the other day), in 1998, in questions with when .

Last night my friends celebrated their anniversary. — Last night my friends celebrated their anniversary.

There wasn’t any rain in September. — There was no rain in September.

2. Alternately listed events in the past. The chronological order is very important: for example, got up, washed, had breakfast.

The dog picked up the bone and went away. — The dog picked up the bone and ran away.

She woke up, opened the window and switched on the TV. “She woke up, opened the window and turned on the TV.

3. Regular, constantly repeated actions in the past we will also express it in Past Indefinite: rarely, every week, often, always. You will immediately say that these are Present Simple pointers, and how can you find out. This is always clear from the context whether the action refers to the present or the past. Just think about the proposal, don’t rush when you see the treasured clue.

Every week he took his son out. “Every week he took his son for a walk.

When I was a little boy I usually went to bed at 8. - When I was a little boy, I went to bed at 8 o'clock.

Sometimes there is confusion between the last function and the phrase used to do smth (be used to do smth). You can study this construction in detail in the article “Used to turnover”.

Even more examples of cases of using this tense can be found in the article “Examples of Past Simple”.

Comparison of times

The grammar of Past Indefinite Tense is quite simple. You will easily understand the formation and usage. But when comparing different past tenses, difficulties arise. Let's figure it out.

Past Simple	Past Continuous	Past Perfect	Past Perfect Continuous	Present Perfect
A single action in the past, a fact, just happened	Long-term action in the past, the exact period when it occurred is indicated	An action ended before a moment or another action in the past, what matters is that it ended	The action lasted a certain time period in the past	The action is not just completed, its consequences are visible in the present, and they are the ones that matter
I wrote a new novel last week.	I was writing a new novel the whole week.	I had written a new novel by New Year.	I had been writing a new novel for a year.	I have written a new novel, and now I go to the editor.
I wrote a new novel last week.	I've been writing a new novel all week.	I wrote a new novel for the New Year.	I've been writing a new novel for a year.	I wrote a new novel, and now I'm going to the editor.

So, let's summarize. According to the rules of Past Simple (Indefinite), the verb changes its form, and negation and question are formed using did. When performing exercises and tests, comparing past simple (indefinite) with other tenses, remember that the first of them tells, informs, lets you know that the action happened sometime in the past. All the time frames are a little blurry, the exact time is never specified.

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Past Indefinite (or in other words - Past Simple) Tense - past indefinite (or simple) time - is the most used tense for conveying actions that happened in the past. We constantly use it in our speech to convey simple actions and daily events.

As already mentioned, in order to understand the tense of an English verb, you need to clearly understand three things: when the action occurs, how it is formed and what the auxiliary verb is.

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When does the action take place?

The past indefinite or simple tense is used to translate any action that happened or was happening in the past.

• Russian revolution happened in 1917 – the Russian revolution happened in 1917
• I finished school two years ago. – I graduated from school two years ago
• Our lesson lasted two hours yesterday - our lesson lasted two hours yesterday
• I came home, had dinner, watched TV and went for a walk - I came home, had lunch, watched TV and went for a walk
• Last year I worked at a hospital – last year I worked in a hospital

Indicators that you need to use Past Indefinite (Past Simple Tense) are the following words:

• yesterday - yesterday
• the day before yesterday - the day before yesterday
• last (week, month, year) - last week (last month, year)
• ago ago
• as well as any indication of time in the past (in 2004, on Monday, when he was young, in my childhood etc.)

How is the past simple tense formed?

The affirmative form is formed as follows:

As you can see from the table, regular verbs form the simple past tense by adding the ending “–ed” to the infinitive. If the verb is irregular, we use the second column of the table of irregular verbs.

Let's look at the formation of the past tense using examples. The correct verb is “to finish”, we discard the particle “to” and add the ending –ed to it. The resulting form of the verb “finished” - finished - is suitable for all persons.

• I finished - I finished
• We finished - we are finished
• You finished - you are finished
• He, she, it finished - he, she - finished (a)
• They finished - they finished

Now we form the past tense form of the irregular verb “break - to break”. To do this, we find the form of this verb in the second column of the table of irregular verbs - “broke” and also apply it to all persons without exception:

• I broke - I broke
• We broke - we broke
• You broke - you broke
• He, she, it broke - he, she, it - broke (a)
• They broke - they broke

As for the interrogative and negative forms, we form them using auxiliary verb did (did is the past tense form of the irregular verb do) and the infinitive (first form) of the predicate verb.

Interrogative form

• Did I (you, he, she, it, they) finish ?
• Did I (you, he, she, it, they) break ?

Negative form

• I did not (didn’t) finish - I didn’t finish
• We didn’t finish - we didn’t finish
• You didn’t finish - you didn’t finish
• He, she, it didn’t finish - he, she, it didn’t finish (a)
• They didn’t finish - they didn’t finish

• I didn’t break - I didn’t break
• We didn’t break - we didn’t break
• You didn’t break - you didn’t break
• He, she, it didn’t break - he, she, it didn’t break (a)
• They didn’t break - they didn’t break

• Once again, we draw your attention to the fact that in a negative and interrogative sentence the semantic verb - the predicate takes the form of the present tense (first form).
• If we ask a question to the subject, the auxiliary verb is not used, and the semantic verb takes the form of the past tense:

Past Indefinite Tense

English Grammar > Verb

Past indefinite tense in English (THE PAST INDEFINITE TENSE)

1. Depending on the ways in which the main forms of verbs in English are formed (past indefinite tense and past participle), all verbs are divided into two categories: regular verbs and irregular verbs.

2. Regular verbs in the past indefinite tense and affirmative form are created by adding a suffix -ed to the infinitive, without a particle to:

2.1. After voiceless consonants, this suffix is ​​read [t]:

to talk - talk - talked - spoke
to place - place - placed - placed

2.2. After voiced consonants, as well as vowels - [d]:

to live - live - lived - lived
to stay - stay - stayed - remained

2.3. After the letters t And d - :

to correct - correct - corrected - corrected
to translate - translate - translated - translated
to decide - decide - decided - decided

2.4. If there is a short stressed vowel before the last consonant, then before the suffix -ed, such a consonant is doubled. Consonant " L" doubles before the suffix -ed Always:

to stop - stop - stopped - stopped
to control - to control -controlled - controlled
to travel - to travel - traveled - traveled

2.5. In cases where the last letter is -y and it comes after the consonant, then before the suffix -ed it changes to -i:

to try - try - tried - tried
to supply - supply - supplied - supplied

2.6. If -y stands after a vowel, then it does not change before the suffix -ed:

to play play - played - played
to employ -employed - applied

2.7. Final letter -e before the suffix -ed omitted:

to recite - recite -recited - recited
to recognize - recognize - recognized - learned

3. Irregular verbs form the affirmative form of the past indefinite tense by changing the entire stem of the verb, or the root vowel:

to run - run - ran - ran
to write - write - wrote - wrote
to be - to be -was, were - was
to have - have -had - had
to go - go -went - walked

In dictionaries and tables of irregular verbs, along with the main form, two more main forms of the verb are usually given - the past indefinite tense and the past participle:

to begin - began - begun - To begin
to choose - chose - chosen - Choose
to draw - drew - drawn - Draw, drag

4. All verbs (regular and irregular) in the past indefinite tense form the interrogative form as follows: auxiliary verb to do in the past tense form ( did) is placed before the subject, and the infinitive of the semantic verb without a particle to- after the subject:

Did you play a football yesterday? - Did you play football yesterday?
Did he serve in the national army last year? - Did he serve in the national army last year?

5. To form the negative form of the past indefinite tense for all regular and irregular verbs, an auxiliary verb is also used to do in the past time ( did), and a negative particle not. Both of these components are placed after the subject:

I did not play a football yesterday. - I didn't play football yesterday.
Did not serve in the national army last year. - He did not serve in the national army last year.

In colloquial speech the phrase did not, as a rule, is shortened to didn't:

6. So, let’s summarize the word formation of verbs in THE PAST INDEFINITE TENSE.

6.1. Regular verbs (consider the verb to work):
Affirmative form:

I worked - I worked
He worked - He worked
She worked - She worked
It worked - He, she, it, it worked (about inanimate objects)
We worked - We worked
You worked - You worked, you worked
They worked - They worked

Interrogative form:

Did I work? - I worked?
Did he work? - He worked?
Did she work? - She worked?
Did it work? - He, she, it, did it work? (about inanimate objects)
Did we work? - We worked?
Did you work? - Did you work? You worked?
Did they work? - They worked?

Negative form:

I did not work - I didn’t work
He did not work - He didn’t work
She did not work - She didn’t work
It did not work - He, she, it, it didn’t work (about inanimate objects)
We did not work - We did not work
You did not work - You didn’t work, You didn’t work
They did not work - They didn’t work

6.2. Irregular verbs (consider the verb to speak):
Affirmative form:

I spoke - I spoke
He spoke - He spoke
She spoke - She spoke
It spoke - He, she, it, it spoke (about inanimate objects)
We spoke - We talked
You spoke - You talked, you talked
They spoke - They talked

Interrogative form:

Did I speak? - I was talking?
Did he speak? - Was he talking?
Did she speak? - Was she talking?
Did it speak? - Was he, she, it, talking? (about inanimate objects)
Did we speak? - We talked?
Did you speak? - Did you talk? Have you talked?
Did they speak? - They were talking?

Negative form:

I did not speak - I didn’t talk
He did not speak - He didn’t speak
She did not speak - She didn’t speak
It did not speak - He, she, it, it did not speak (about inanimate objects)
We did not speak - We didn’t talk
You did not speak - You didn’t talk, You didn’t talk
They did not speak - They didn’t talk

6.3. Verb to be:
Affirmative form:

I was - I was
He was - He was
She was - She was
It was - He, she, it, it was (about inanimate objects)
We were - We were
You were - You were, you were
They were - They were

Interrogative form:

Was I? - I was?
Was he? - He was?
Was she? - She was?
Was it? - He, she, it, was it? (about inanimate objects)
Were we? - We were?
Were you? - You was? You were?
Were they? - They were?

Negative form (+ shortened negative form)

I was not - I wasn’t - I wasn’t
He was not - He wasn’t - He wasn’t
She was not - She wasn’t - She wasn't
It was not - He, she, it, it wasn’t (about inanimate objects) - It wasn’t
We weren't - We weren't - We weren't
You were not - You weren't, You weren't - You weren't
They were not - They weren't - They weren't

6.4. Verb to have:
Affirmative form:

I had - I had
He had - He had
She had - She had
It had - He, she, it, it had (about inanimate objects)
We had- We had
You had- You had, you had
They had- They had

Interrogative form:

Had I? - I had?
Had he? - He had?
Had she? - She had?
Had it? - He, she, it, it had? (about inanimate objects)
Had we? - We had?
Had you? - Did you have, did you have?
Had they? - They had?

Negative form:

I had no (not) - I didn’t have
He had no (not) - He didn’t have
She had no (not) - She didn’t have
It had no (not) - He, she, it, it did not have (about inanimate objects)
We had no (not) - We didn’t have
You had no (not) - You didn’t have, you didn’t have
They had no (not) - They didn’t have

Use of THE PAST INDEFINITE TENSE

7. As a rule, the past indefinite tense is used in the following cases:
7.1. When expressing an action that has passed and the time of its action is expressed in words like: “yesterday”, “the other day”, “last week”(month, etc.) last week (month etc.) and so on:

Arthur Smith joined the army when World War I broke out. - When the First World War began, Arthur Smith enlisted in the army.

7.2. When expressing several sequential actions that have already happened in the past:

Didn't take the telephone, dialed the number and waited for an answer. - He took the phone, dialed the number and waited for an answer.

7.3. When expressing common actions often repeated in the past:

It was the habit of Arthur Smith to leave nothing untested. - Arthur Smith had a habit of leaving nothing untested.

7.4. When expressing a truism (well-known facts) that took place in the past:

The World War I broke out on the August, 1914. - The First World War began in August 1914.