The document defines and provides examples of the simple past tense in English. It describes the simple past as a verb tense used to talk about actions that were completed in the past. It lists the characteristics of the simple past, including that the main verb is always in the past tense. The document also distinguishes between regular verbs, which form the past by adding "-ed", and irregular verbs, which have unique past tense forms that must be memorized. It provides a list of common regular and irregular verbs along with their past tense forms.