Simple past : Negative form

To form the negative of a sentence in the Simple Past you need to use the past form of the auxiliary verb ‘do’ - that is ‘Forming the Negative of the simple past

To form the negative of a sentence in the Simple Past you need to use the past form of the auxiliary verb ‘do’ - that is ‘did‘ + ‘not‘ + the infinitive of the verb you want to use. For example - I did not play.

We often contract did and not into one word - didn’t – for example:

I didn’t play
They didn’t play
She didn’t play
Notice that did and didn’t are invariable – they do not change no matter which pronoun you use.

The Same rule applies for irregular verbs:

Let’s look at leave,come and teach:

I didn’t leave
We didn’t come
He didn’t teach
Here’s an example with the very common irregular verb ‘to go’

She went to school yesterday.
Becomes in the negative:

She did not go to school yesterday.
Remember that ‘went’ is the past form of ‘go‘. I went I didn’t go

Regular verbs:

Very simple!

She talked to Martin last week.
She did not talk to Martin last week.
You try…
Make the sentences with the negative Simple Past

They studied English in 2006.
Tim played golf when he was at university.
(answers below)

See also

English4Today Grammar: Simple Past section
Answers:

They did not study ..
Tim did not play…