(n) :
a
tense that allows you to describe something that happened in the past. It is "simple" because it is formed by inflection of a single word: there is no auxiliary verb such as be or have (unlike the
present perfect and
past perfect tenses). The simple past tense is also called the preterite (occasionally preterit) tense, especially when referring to foreign languages. It is also known more simply as just the
past tense