tenses, present tenses, past tenses, future tenses We use the past simple to talk about finished states, events and actions in the past. Last year we studied the lives of the ancient Greeks in History. Neil Armstrong was the first man to land on the moon. Irregular verbs Many common verbs have irregular past forms. go - went have - had take - took The verb to be has two past simple forms. I / He / She / It was at school yesterday. You / We / They were at school yesterday. I / He / She / It was not (wasn’t) at school yesterday. You / We / They were not (weren’t) at school yesterday. Was I / he / she / it at school yesterday? – Yes, I / he / she / it was.