Past Simple Questions and Negatives
Practise past simple questions and negatives with did: why "Did you went" is wrong and how to use did not correctly. 20 free questions with explanations. A2.
How this works
This is the single most useful rule in the past simple, and it is one sentence long: only one word carries the past.
In a positive sentence, that word is the main verb. "She went home." In a question or a negative, the job passes to "did", and the main verb goes back to its base form. "Did she go home?" "She did not go home."
That is why "Did you went?" is wrong. Both "did" and "went" are past forms, and English only allows one. Once "did" is there, the other verb has nothing left to do, so it returns to its plain form: go, take, buy, see. The same applies in the negative: "I did not know", never "I did not knew".
The contraction is "didn’t", and it behaves identically: "didn’t go", "didn’t know", "didn’t take".
There is exactly one exception, and it is the verb "to be". It needs no auxiliary at all. "Were you late?" not "Did you were late?". "She was not ready" not "She did not was ready". If the verb is am, is, are, was or were, leave "did" out entirely.
One more thing that trips people up: a wh- question follows the same pattern, with the question word in front. "Where did you go?" "Why did she leave?" "What did they say?" The only exception is when the question word is the subject - "Who called you?" - where no "did" appears at all.
Why this trips up Indian English speakers
"Did you went?" is the most persistent grammar error in spoken Indian English, and it is worth understanding why it survives rather than just drilling it.
In Hindi and most Indian languages, the past tense is marked on the main verb regardless of whether the sentence is a question, a statement or a negative. English is unusual in moving that marking onto an auxiliary and stripping it from the verb, and nothing in the meaning changes when you do not - "Did you went?" is perfectly clear, so it is never corrected in conversation and becomes permanent.
The pattern shows up in three shapes, and they all have the same fix: "Did you went to the office?", "Did she called you?", "I didn’t knew about it." Remove the past from the second verb in each: go, call, know.
The related one is mixing "did" with the verb "to be". "Did you were there?" and "Did he was ready?" are common because "did" starts to feel like a general question word. It is not - it is an auxiliary that "to be" does not need. Say "Were you there?" and "Was he ready?"
This is the highest-value thing on this page. It appears in almost every interview answer that describes something you have done, and it is one rule.
20 questions
All 20 questions are below, with the rule explained above. Turn on JavaScript to work through them one at a time and check each answer as you go.
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Fix this sentence: Did you went to the office yesterday?
_____
Only one word can carry the past.
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_____ she _____ (call) you about the interview?
The second blank is the base form.
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I _____ (not know) about the change in schedule.
Negative, so the base form again.
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Fix this sentence: She didn’t finished the assignment on time.
_____
Same rule as questions.
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_____ you late for the train this morning?
What is the verb in this sentence?
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Where _____ they _____ (go) after the meeting?
Question word, then did, then subject, then base verb.
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Fix this sentence: Did he was ready when you arrived?
_____
Two auxiliaries where one verb would do.
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We _____ (not receive) your email until this morning.
Base form after the negative.
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Which question is correct?
What form follows "did"?
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Why _____ you _____ (leave) so early yesterday?
Not "left".
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Who _____ (call) you at midnight?
Careful - is "who" the subject here?
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Fix this sentence: They didn’t went to the wedding last week.
_____
The same doubled past as in questions.
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_____ the package _____ (arrive) before you left?
Base form, even for a regular verb.
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She _____ (not be) at her desk when I came in.
This verb makes its own negative.
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Arrange the words into a correct question.
_____
Question word, auxiliary, subject, base verb, time.
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What _____ the manager _____ (say) about the deadline?
Not "said".
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Fix this sentence: Did they finished the project or not?
_____
Regular verbs follow the rule too.
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I _____ (not have) time to review it properly.
Base form, even for "have".
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Which sentence is correct?
Which verb never takes "did"?
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How long _____ the interview _____ (take)?
Not "took".
Now say it out loud
Getting it right in a gap is not the same as getting it right while you are talking. That is the gap this whole site exists to close, and it takes sixty seconds.
Ask a friend four questions about their last holiday, all in the past simple, and make sure the main verb in each one is in its base form.
Common questions
Why is "Did you went" wrong?
Because the past is marked twice. "Did" is already the past form of "do", so it carries the tense, and the main verb goes back to its base form: "Did you go?" English allows only one past marker per verb phrase. The same rule makes "I didn’t went" wrong; it should be "I didn’t go".
Do I use did with was and were?
No. The verb "to be" forms questions and negatives on its own: "Were you late?", "She was not ready", "Was he there?". Adding "did" - "Did you were late?" - is always wrong. This is the one verb that never needs an auxiliary.
How do I make a wh- question in the past simple?
Put the question word first, then did, then the subject, then the base verb: "Where did you go?", "Why did she leave?", "What did they say?". The exception is when the question word is itself the subject, where no did appears: "Who called you?", "What happened?".