25 Past Tense Question Examples

Once you have introduced students to the past simple tense, a great way to get students to practice using the past tense is to ask them many past tense questions. Asking past tense questions gives students an opportunity to talk about themselves and the things they have done. In this post, we have put together 25 past tense questions you can ask your students to help them practice speaking or writing in the past tense. We will also show you how to form both positive and negative past tense questions.

Past Tense Questions

Here are 25 past questions that you can ask your students. These are great to help your students practice speaking in the past tense, or can be used as past tense writing prompts.

1. Where did you go for your last vacation?
2. What did you learn at school yesterday?
3. What was your first memory?
4. Who was your first friend?
5. What did you eat for breakfast?
6. What was the last thing you bought?
7. What was the last sport you played?
8. What did you do during the winter vacation?
9. What did you do before school today?
10. What did you have for dinner yesterday?
11. When was the last time you exercised?
12. What was the last movie you saw?
13. What was the last book you read?
14. When did you last have a bad dream?
15. When did you last tell a lie?
16. What did you watch on TV last weekend?
17. When did you last have an argument with someone?
18. How did you travel to school today?
19. When was the last time you cried?
20. What was the last thing you cooked?
21. Who was your first teacher?
22. What was your favorite toy as a child?
23. Who did you meet at the weekend?
24. Where did you go last weekend?
25. What was the first concert you went to?

How To Form Past Tense Questions

To create a past tense question, you must first begin with a past tense verb. For regular verbs, you simply add “-ed” to the base form of the verb. For irregular verbs, the past tense form must be memorized.

Once you have the past tense verb, invert the subject and verb order to form a question. For example, if the sentence in the past tense is “I walked to the store,” the question would be, “Did you walk to the store?” The auxiliary verb “did” is used to create the question, and the subject “I” has been inverted with the verb “walked.” It is important to remember that auxiliary verbs are necessary to form questions in English, and the past tense form of the main verb should always follow the auxiliary verb.

How To Form Negative Past Tense Questions

To form negative past tense questions in English, you will need to use the auxiliary verb “did” and the negative adverb “not” before the main verb. The order of the words in the sentence is the same as with regular past tense questions: the auxiliary verb comes before the subject, and the main verb comes after the subject.

For example, “He did not walk to school” becomes “Did he not walk to school?” Another example is “I did not see the movie,” becomes “Did I not see the movie?” It’s important to remember that the word “not” comes after the auxiliary verb and before the main verb.

Negative Past Tense Questions

Here are 25 negative past tense questions:

1. Did you not eat breakfast this morning?
2. Did they not watch the movie last night?
3. Did she not call you yesterday?
4. Did we not go to the park on Saturday?
5. Did he not finish his homework on time?
6. Did you not enjoy the party last night?
7. Did they not attend the meeting yesterday?
8. Did she not play basketball with you last week?
9. Did we not visit our grandparents last weekend?
10. Did he not clean his room yesterday?
11. Did you not order a pizza for dinner?
12. Did they not study for the test last night?
13. Did she not read the book you recommended?
14. Did we not go to the beach on vacation?
15. Did he not go to the gym yesterday?
16. Did you not take the bus to work this morning?
17. Did they not practice their instruments yesterday?
18. Did she not paint a picture for her friend?
19. Did we not try the new restaurant downtown?
20. Did he not visit his parents last weekend?
21. Did you not write the report for the meeting?
22. Did they not finish the project on time?
23. Did she not go to the concert with her friends?
24. Did we not buy groceries on our way home?
25. Did he not attend the party with his girlfriend?

Past Tense Questions – Listening Exercise

To practice answering past tense questions, try this listening exercise. You will hear a man talking about his recent vacation to Paris. You will then be asked some past tense questions about the story. Answer the questions before the time runs out.

Related Resources

Past Tense Worksheets
List Of Past Tense Verbs
Past Tense Lesson Plan
Past Tense PowerPoint