The simple past tense is used to describe a completed activity that happened in the past. It uses the past form of verbs like "walked", "talked" and includes negatives with "did not". The simple past tense is often used with time expressions like "yesterday" or "last week" to provide context about when the activity occurred or how long it lasted. There are four past tenses in English including the simple past, past progressive, past perfect, and past perfect progressive tenses.

1. Simple Past Tense
The simple past tense is used to describe a completed activity that
happened in the past. In other words, it started in the past and ended in the
past.
Uses of the Simple Past Tense
Here are some examples of the simple past tense (shaded):
 The Martians landednear the aqueduct.
 The burglar consideredusing the fire escape.
Of course, you can also have the negative version, which is formed "did not"
+ "[verb in base form]":
 The Martians did not landnear the aqueduct.
(We could have used didn't instead of did not.)
 The burglar did not considerusing the fire escape.
And, the question versions:
 Did the Martians landnear the aqueduct?
 Why didn't the burglar considerusing the fire escape?
The Simple Past Tense with Time Expressions

2. The simple past tense is often seen with a time expression explaining when
the activity took place or how long it lasted.
Examples of "when an activity took place":
 On Tuesday last week, the Martians landednear the aqueduct.
("On Tuesday last week" tells you when it happened. It's called an adverbial
phrase of time. Other examples are"Yesterday," "Last year," "Before
breakfast,". They are really common. When any adverb appears at the front
of a sentence, it is usual to follow it with a comma. A comma is not usually
used when the adverbial phrase appears at the back of a sentence. NB: This
is not a strict rule. Use a comma if it helps your reader.)
 The Martians landednear the aqueduct on Tuesday last week.
(Note: No comma)
 Just before he was caught, the burglar consideredusing the fire
escape.
("Just before he was caught" tells you when the activity took place.)
Examples of "how long an activity took":
 Last week, the council inspectedthe drains.
("Last week" tells you when it happened and for how long.)
 Her daughter hidunder the bed for three hours.
(Using "for" is a common way of describing how long an activity lasted.)
The Other Past Tenses

3. The simple past tense is one of four past tenses. They are:
The 4 Past Tenses Example
simple past tense I went
past progressive tense I was going
past perfect tense I had gone
past perfect progressive tense I had been going