simple past of essay

Past simple or simple past is one of the essentials in English language. You can tell a story or write a story using the past simple tense.

I drove my dad's car yesterday.

I washed my face last night

So basically the simple past uses the past tense of the verb plus one of these:

Last holiday

Last ....etc

Of course you need to know the past simple of the irregular verbs

Irregular verbs read more

The regular verbs end with ed like

Work worked

Walk walked

Wash washed

and so on... etc

After you got familiar with your regular and irregular verbs then you can start writing

For example:

Write about your last holiday

What did you do?

Where did you go?

My last holiday was fantastic. I went to the mountains in a place called Salalah in Oman. The mountains were so green and the people were so friendly. I visited many places like, forts, beaches, the hotels at night and went shopping in the grand mall. I stayed there for 10 days. The weather was really nice and it was great for camping. So we went camping on the mountains and made a small fire for BBQ.

This is a sample paragraph for the past simple tense

Now it is your turn to try writing

_________________________________________________________________________

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• Simple Past Tense | Examples & Exercises

Past Simple | Examples & Exercises

Published on 28 August 2023 by Eoghan Ryan . Revised on 30 October 2023.

The past simple tense is a verb form used to refer to an action or series of actions that were completed in the past.

The past simple tense of regular verbs is formed by adding “-ed” to the infinitive form of the verb (e.g., “cook” becomes “cooked”). Most verbs in the simple past take the same form regardless of the subject (e.g., “He worked/we worked”).

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Table of contents

How to use the past simple, present perfect vs past simple, simple past vs past perfect, how to form negatives, how to form questions, how to form the passive voice, exercises: past simple tense, other interesting language articles, frequently asked questions about the simple past tense.

The past simple tense (also called the simple past or preterite ) is used to describe an action or series of actions that occurred in the past.

The past simple of regular verbs is typically formed by adding “-ed” to the end of the infinitive (e.g., “talk” becomes “talked”).

Irregular verbs don’t follow a specific pattern: some take the same form as the infinitive (e.g., “put”), while others change completely (e.g., “go” becomes “went”).

Most verbs in the simple past tense don’t follow subject-verb agreement (i.e., they don’t change form depending on the subject).

Ariana rented a car and drove to the coast.

We visited a museum, walked the Champs-Élysées, and dined at a fancy restaurant.

Forming the simple past

The simple past of regular verbs is usually formed by adding “-ed” to the end of the verb (e.g., “guess” becomes “guessed”). However, this can vary depending on the verb’s ending.

Irregular verb: “be”

The stative verb “be” in the simple past tense is used to describe unchanging past conditions (e.g., “My father was a good man”) and temporary past situations (e.g., “The children were tired”). Unlike other verbs in the simple past, “be” changes form depending on the subject, as shown in the table below.

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Both the present perfect and past simple tenses are used to refer to past action. However, they serve different purposes:

• The present perfect is used to refer to an action that began in the past and may continue or to an action that took place in the past and has present consequences.
• The past simple is typically used to describe an action that was completed in the past and is not ongoing.

I have run a marathon before. [I may run a marathon again]

I was a vegetarian when I was younger.

While the past simple is used to describe an action or series of actions that occurred in the past, the past perfect is used to indicate that an action was completed before another past action began.

In the past simple tense, negative statements are formed by adding “did not” (or the contraction “didn’t”) between the subject and the infinitive form of the verb.

For the verb “be,” negative statements are formed by adding “was not/were not” (or the contractions “wasn’t/weren’t”) after the subject .

To ask a yes–no question using the simple past, add “did” before the subject and the infinitive form of the verb.

To ask a question starting with a wh-word (an interrogative pronoun like “who” or an interrogative adverb like “where”), follow the same word order as above, but add the pronoun or adverb at the start of the sentence.

Why did Eva leave so early?

Passive sentences are ones in which the subject is not the person or thing performing the action. Instead, the subject is the person or thing being acted upon.

In the past simple, passive constructions are formed using a subject , “was”/“were”, and the past participle of the verb.

Maria was ignored by the salesman.

Practise using the past simple correctly with the exercises below. In the blank space in each sentence, fill in the correct past simple form based on the subject and verb specified (e.g., “[he / talk]” becomes “he talked”). Some answers may also be negative statements or questions.

• Practice questions
• Answers and explanations
• __________ [you / go] to the shop this morning.
• __________ [they / play] a board game.
• __________ [my son / not / study] for the exam.
• __________ [the band / rehearse] every day this week.
• __________ [I / plan] to be home by six!
• When __________ [you / travel] to France?
• The past simple form of the irregular verb “go” is “went”.
• The past simple form of the regular verb “play” is “played”.
• In the past simple tense, negative statements are formed by adding “did not” (or the contraction “didn’t”) between the subject (“my son”) and the infinitive form of the verb (“study”).
• The past simple form of the regular verb “rehearse” is “rehearsed”.
• For short verbs, where the last three letters follow a consonant-vowel-consonant pattern (e.g., “plan”), you double the final consonant and add “-ed”.
• To ask a question starting with a wh-word, add the wh-word at the start of the sentence, followed by “did”, the subject (“you”), and the infinitive form of the verb (“travel”).

If you want to know more about commonly confused words, definitions, common mistakes, and differences between US and UK spellings, make sure to check out some of our other language articles with explanations, examples, and quizzes.

Nouns & pronouns

• Common nouns
• Proper nouns
• Collective nouns
• Personal pronouns
• Uncountable and countable nouns
• Verb tenses
• Phrasal verbs
• Sentence structure
• Active vs passive voice
• Subject-verb agreement
• Interjections
• Determiners
• Prepositions

The simple past tense of the verb “read” is “read” (e.g., “I read a book last week”).

While “read” is spelled the same in both its past and present forms, its pronunciation differs depending on the tense :

• The simple present form is pronounced “reed”.
• The simple past form is pronounced “red”.

The simple past tense of the verb “teach” is “taught” (e.g., “You taught me a lesson”).

While the simple past of a regular verb is typically formed by adding “-ed” to the end of the infinitive (e.g., “talk” becomes “talked”), irregular verbs like “teach” don’t follow a specific pattern.

The simple past tense of the verb “go” is “went” (e.g., “Ava went to Spain”).

While the simple past of a regular verb is typically formed by adding “-ed” to the end of the infinitive (e.g., “jump” becomes “jumped”), irregular verbs like “go” don’t follow a specific pattern.

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The Past Simple Tense

Perfect english grammar.

(also called the simple past tense)

Click here to learn about how to USE the past simple.

It's similar to the present simple because it has different rules for the verb 'be', which becomes 'was' or 'were':

The Past Simple with 'be'

Here's how to make the positive:

To make the negative with 'be', just add 'not':

Here's an exercise to practise the positive and negative forms with 'be'

To make a question, just like the present simple, we change the position of 'was / were' and the subject.

Here are the past simple 'yes / no' questions with 'be':

And the 'wh' questions with 'be' (the question word just goes at the beginning, everything else is the same):

And here's an exercise for 'wh' and 'yes / no' questions

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Past Simple Tense: How To Use It Correctly (With Examples)

The past simple is one of the most commonly used tenses in English. We mostly use this tense to describe finished actions that happened in the past. However, there are other uses besides this. Let’s explore the correct uses of the past simple tense and look at some common mistakes to avoid. Check out the interactive exercises at the end to test your knowledge!

The past simple is the base form of the past tense in English. We use it to refer to an action or event that was completed before now – e.g. I play ed tennis yesterday. The formula is: subject + verb with ‘ – ed ’ . Some signal words for this tense are: before , ago, yesterday , last year .

When do we use of the Past Simple?

1. completed actions in the past.

We can use the past simple tense to describe actions that took place in the past. They started and finished in the past , without necessarily a specific time in mind. However, time expressions can still be used when giving more detail about the past time when the action took place.

Last week, I played rugby with some friends. I hurt my leg while tackling another player. It took me a couple of days to recover!

2. A series of completed actions in the past

The past simple tense can be used in a similar way to talk about a series of actions that took place in the past. These will be formatted as a list of things that happened one after the other. This is very common in storytelling and spoken narratives.

3. Past habits

Another common use of the past simple is to describe habits that took place in the past. This is also used in storytelling and to talk casually about things you usually did before. These past habits may be old or they have only stopped recently, but they are not ongoing now.

When we were young, my brother and I always fought . We argued for hours about all kinds of things! After leaving home, we stopped fighting and became much closer.

4. Expressing past durations

The past simple tense can be used with time expressions to talk about how long something lasted. Some examples of time expressions that can be used are: for a while, for a week, for a short time.

It took me ages to drive to the stadium. The rugby match lasted 80 minutes . The first half went on for 40 minutes , plus injury time.

5. Facts and generalisations from the past

An interesting use of the past simple is to describe facts from the past. In addition, you can make generalisations about things that happened in the past.

Our planet’s continents and oceans were formed over a very long time. Dinosaurs roamed the Earth during the Jurassic Period. They became extinct around 65 million years ago.

How do we form the Past Simple tense?

There can be affirmative (positive), negative, and questioning functions for all the uses of the past simple. To form the affirmative of past simple tense for regular verbs, use the root form of the verb, then add ‘-ed’ to the end.

Formula = Subject + verb with ‘- ed ’

Rachel play ed the guitar. Jack walk ed to school this morning.

Note that English also has many irregular verbs that do not follow this rule! You should learn these separately as they do not take the ‘-ed’ ending. Some common examples include: go/went, be/was/were, sit/sat, tell/told, say/said, write/wrote, speak/spoke, make/made.

John sat on the chair. Sarah wrote an email to her friend.

How to conjugate verbs in the past simple tense in the affirmative:

To form the negative, we use the past form of the auxiliary verb ‘to do’ (‘did’) and place it after the subject. Then we place ‘not’ after the auxiliary to make it negative. Finally, we use the root form of the verb (without the ‘-ed’ ending!).

Formula = Subject + did + not + root verb (bare infinitive, without ‘to’)

I did not want to leave the party. I did not order a taxi home.

How to conjugate verbs in the past simple tense in the negative:

To form the interrogative (a question), put ‘did’ before the subject. After the subject comes the root form of the verb. Don’t forget to include a question mark (?) at the end!

Formula = Did + subject + root verb

Did Jack attend the meeting this morning? Did I say that to you?

To form an interrogative that is negative, place ‘not’ after the subject. With contracted forms, place ‘not’ after ‘did’. Note that native speakers prefer to use contractions in spoken English and less formal writing so these usually sound more natural.

Didn’t you buy any food for dinner? Did you not see the fireworks? (more formal)

As above with the negative, we do not need the auxiliary verb ‘did’ when using ‘to be’. To form the interrogative with ‘to be’ in the past simple, simply flip the subject with the verb. E.g. You were happy before. —> Were you happy before?

How to conjugate verbs in the past simple tense in the interrogative:

Common mistakes with Past Simple (and how to avoid them!)

1. using the past simple instead of the present perfect.

For events that started in the past and are still ongoing now, learners sometimes try to use the past simple. However, the correct tense to use in this situation is the present perfect .

I didn’t finish my homework yet . ( incorrect ) I haven’t finish ed my homework yet. ( correct , present perfect)

2. Forgetting the auxiliary verb when forming a negative or interrogative

The auxiliary verb ‘to do’ is needed when forming a negative or interrogative in the past simple tense (with the exception of ‘to be’). It is a common mistake to leave it out.

John ___ not go to work this morning. ( incorrect ) John did n’t go to work this morning. ( correct )

3. Using the ‘-ed’ ending for irregular verbs

So many verbs in the past simple tense use the regular ‘-ed’ ending so it is natural to think all English verbs behave in this way. But they don’t! Make sure to learn the correct forms for irregular verbs to avoid making mistakes.

I writ ed my essay last week. ( incorrect ) I wrote my essay last week. ( correct )

4. Using the past form rather than the root form after an auxiliary

When the auxiliary verb is used to form interrogatives and negatives in the past simple tense, the root form of the verb follows. It is a mistake to use the past form of the verb.

Did they left on time? ( incorrect ) Did they leave on time? ( correct )

Past Simple Tense: Quiz exercises

Test your understanding of the past simple with these interactive exercises. Select the correct answer for each of the questions and get your score at the end of the quiz. You can also share your result via social media and challenge your friends to try it too!

• He _____ to work to get his 10,000 steps in. A. Has walked B . Walked C. Had walked D. Runned
• Does this sentence contain the past simple tense? ‘Over my 30 years in the finance sector, I’ve seen it all.’ A. Yes B. No
• From the moment she _____ at me, I knew she ___the one for me. A. Saw, Was B.   Looked, Is C.   Looks, was D. Looked, was
• I was surprised when Man Utd came from behind to _____ the match. A. Won B. Win C. Winned D. Have won
• Is this question grammatically correct? ‘You studied for the test well?’ A. Yes B. No  
• In the summer, we   ____   ____ for walks on the beach. A. Always, Went B. Always, Gone C. Did, Went D. Did, Gone
• I just _____ a new smartphone. A. Have got B. Had been bought C. Bought D. Had bought
• The sun ____ down on the mountains as they traversed the steep ravine. A. Did shined B. Shone C. Has shined D. Not shone
• I _____ that I ______ the answer to the maths question, but I didn’t. A. Know, Knew B. Thought, Knew C. Knew, know D. Thought, Know
• Since Julia ______ close by, we decided to visit her. A. Has lived B. Living C. Lived D. Had lived

Cameron Rose is a British English teacher and writer. He holds a BA hons degree in Linguistics from University College London, and is fully TEFL certified. After falling in love with languages at a young age, he started his English teaching career in China. He later returned to the UK and became an online English tutor with OTUK. He has a keen interest in grammar and loves to dig into the structures of English. In his spare time, Cameron enjoys meditating and creating Chinese rap music.

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• English Grammar
• English Tenses
• Simple Past Tense

Simple Past Tense - Definition, Structure, Rules, Uses and Examples

Did you learn the simple past tense yet? No? Nothing to worry about. This article on simple past tense will help you understand the meaning, definition and structure of simple past tense. Furthermore, you will also learn how to use the simple past tense and its uses along with examples.

Table of Contents

Definition of simple past tense, structure of the simple past tense, rules and points to remember when using the simple past tense, what do you use the simple past tense for, forming the simple past tense – examples, test your understanding of simple past tense, frequently asked questions on simple past tense in english, the simple past tense.

The simple past tense, in English, is used to represent an action/event that took place in the past. With many verbs , the simple past tense is formed by adding an ‘ed’ or a ‘d’ to the end of the base verb. However, there are other verbs which behave differently and take different spellings when used in the simple past form.

The ‘simple past tense’, according to the Cambridge Dictionary, is defined as “the form of a verb used to describe an action that happened before the present time and is no longer happening. It is usually made by adding -ed.” The Collins Dictionary defines the ‘simple past tense’ as “a tense used to refer to the past.” The Macmillan Dictionary defines the simple past tense as “the tense used to talk about habitual actions, behaviour, or situations that happened or existed before now.”

Learning the structure of the simple past tense can be made simple if you analyse how the tense is used in the positive, negative, interrogative and negative interrogative formats. Look at the table below to have a better understanding of the same.

When conjugating a verb in the simple past tense, there are a few points you have to bear in mind.

• Conjugating regular verbs – In order to present the main verb in the sentence, you just have to add ‘-ed’ to the end of the regular verb and ‘-d’ to the end of a regular verb which ends with an ‘e’.

For example: Reach – reached, kick – kicked, walk – walked, confess – confessed, work –

Like – liked, introduce – introduced, force – forced, announce – announced,

` notice – noticed

• Verbs that remain the same – Some verbs take the same spelling as the base verb and remain the same in the past tense.

For example: Cut – cut, put – put, hurt – hurt, set – set, hit – hit

• Verbs that take different spelling patterns – Irregular verbs are seen to follow different spelling patterns and there is no rule as such to explain why they are so.

For example: Buy – bought, think – thought, draw – drew, drink – drank, see – saw

The simple past tense can be used to,

• Refer to an action or event that happened in the past
• Speak about something that was true for some time in the past
• Explain something that happened more than once in the past

To help you understand how the simple past tense can be used, here are a few examples.

Referring to an action that happened in the past

• We went to the park yesterday evening.
• I totally forgot about the meeting.
• Manu opened the door for the guests.

Referring to an action that was true for some time in the past

• Karthik played tennis when he was in school.
• Miss Holly worked as a guest lecturer at our college.
• Santana used to love reading fantasy novels when she was younger.

Referring to an action that took place several times in the past

• I worked as an academic counsellor for six months.
• We enjoyed playing Pictionary every time we met.
• My father dropped me at school every day till I entered high school.

Fill in the blanks with the simple past tense of the verbs mentioned in the brackets:

1. I _____ (pay) the bills already.

2. The teacher ________ (motivate) her kids to stand up for themselves and their fellow classmates.

3. Reena ______ (to be) a student at Delhi University.

4. ______ you ______ (finish – interrogative) the science and maths assignments?

5. Tina __________ (know – negative) about yesterday’s test.

6. _________ he ________ (complete – negative interrogative) the paper yet?

7. Rahul __________ (play) basketball in college.

8. Will and Emma _________ (to be) at the fair.

9. Manish _________ (sell) all the sachets.

10. I _________ (think) about it, but I don’t think it will work.

Check out if you filled in the blanks with the right form of the verb.

1. I paid the bills already.

2. The teacher motivated her kids to stand up for themselves and their fellow classmates.

3. Reena was a student at Delhi University.

4. Did you finish the science and maths assignments?

5. Tina did not know about yesterday’s test.

6. Didn’t he complete the paper yet?

7. Rahul played basketball in college.

8. Will and Emma were at the fair.

9. Manish sold all the sachets.

10. I thought about it, but I don’t think it will work.

What is the past tense?

The simple past tense, in English, is used to represent an action event that took place in the past. With many vwebs, the simple past tense is formed by adding an ‘ed’ or a ‘d’ to the end of the base verb. However, there are other verbs which behave differently and take different spellings when used in the simple past form.

What is the definition of simple past tense?

What is the formula of the simple past tense.

The basic formula of the simple past tense is as follows: Subject + verb in the past tense (verb + ‘ed/d’ for regular verbs)

Give some examples of the simple past tense.

Here are a few examples to show you how the simple past tense is used in sentences.

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Simple Past or Past Progressive – English Tense Comparison

When to use the simple past and past progressive, signal words: simple past vs. past progressive, verbs that are not used in the progressive form, conjugation.

• Lingolia Plus English

Simple past vs. past progressive

The simple past and the past progressiv e , also past continuous, are used to express actions in the past, however each has a different function.

The simple past expresses completed, sequential actions in the past and is therefore the main narrative form.

The past progressive expresses actions that were in progress at a specific point in the past; this tense establishes background and sets the scene.

Learn the difference between the simple past and the past progressive in English grammar with Lingolia, then practise using them in the interactive exercises.

I spent my holidays in Wales last year. I travelled around by bike. Every morning I got up early, set off on my bike, visited the villages on the way and talked to people.

My friends preferred to spend their holidays by the sea. So while I was cycling , my friends were probably sitting on the beach.

But one day, when I was talking to a farmer in a village, my mobile rang . My friends were calling to tell me that they were waiting under a bus stop because it was raining so heavily at the seaside!

The chart below provides an overview of the differences between the English simple past and past progressive.

Signal words can help us to recognise which tense to use in a sentence. Below is a list of signal words for the simple past and past progressive tenses .

The following verbs are not generally used in a progressive form.

• stative verbs be*, cost, fit, mean, remain, suit Example: The weather was awful.
• verbs that indicate possession/belonging belong, have* Example: I didn’t have a lot of luggage.
• verbs of sensory perception feel*, hear, see*, smell*, taste*, touch Example: I saw many villages.
• verbs that express feelings hate, hope, like, love, prefer, regret, want, wish Example: My friends preferred to spend their holidays by the sea.
• verbs of thought and recognition believe, know, realise, recognise, seem, think*, understand Example: I thought they would be sitting at the beach all day.
• clauses accompanying direct speech answer, ask, reply, say Example: “We are spending all day inside,” my friends said .

*change of meaning

Some stative verbs also have a progressive form, but the meaning of the progressive form is sightly different.

Learn more about the progressive aspect with Lingolia’s visual tense timeline .

For information on the conjugation of these two tenses, see:

• Simple Past
• Past Progressive

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My last holiday

Learn how to write about your last holiday.

Do the preparation task first. Then read the text and tips and do the exercises.

Preparation

Grouping_MjI2NzU=

My last holiday was a five-day trip to Prague in the Czech Republic. I know Prague well because I lived there when I was at university, more than ten years ago.

Instead of staying in a hotel, I stayed with one of my old friends. It was so much fun, and a little bit like my old life. I wanted to do all the same things I did in my university days, so I visited the university. It has changed a lot and looks more modern. I also went to the supermarket near my old house. I loved seeing all the different foods. I was really happy to find my favourite cheese and chocolate biscuits but they were a bit more expensive than I remember!

We did some touristy things too. We walked up beautiful Petrin Hill and around the castle. The views of the city are amazing up there. We walked across the historic Charles Bridge. My friend's flat is very near the TV Tower so we saw the famous baby statues climbing up it. Those things haven't changed, of course.

1. Try to make your writing interesting for the reader. To do this, you can make it personal with your own memories and experiences.

2. Use adjectives to add detail to your descriptions.

3. Write clear and simple sentences and organise your ideas in short paragraphs. Give each paragraph a different topic.

4. Use so, but, and, because and other linking words.

Where was your last holiday?

Language level

I want you to know that I am very happy and enjoying my vacation quite a bit. The destination on this vacation has been the Colombian Caribbean coast, We arrived two days ago, this is a very nice experience. Yesterday I discovered the window to the world that is located in Barranquilla, as well as the boardwalk, they are very warm places but above all very visited, as the afternoon fell I went to visit some of my husband's brothers. Tomorrow we will get up very early to travel a few kilometers and be able to visit Cabo de la Vela, in La Guajira, we will leave at 6 am, because we must be in Uribia Guajira at 3 pm, there the tour guide will be waiting for us, who will be the one in charge of directing this adventure. I also had the opportunity to visit Cartagena de Indias and its beautiful beaches, I really liked getting to know the beach, the sea and the people who live there, But what I liked most was being able to visit Cabo de la Vela and learn a little about the reality of the Wayuu culture, being able to enjoy the beautiful landscapes and sunsets that this beautiful place offers.

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My last was holiday three-week trip to Fez in Morocco. Fez it’s my hometown so I know it well because I lived there for 26 years. I went to visit my family there and I stayed at home, every day I was invited by my sisters and brothers, they made me delicious dishes and we had a good time together. I’ve been seeing my friends every day in the café, we’ve been seeing football matches and we’ve been talking about different topics. In this holiday I made many things important for me, I had driving courses to be confident when I’m going to buy a car, in the same time I had English courses.  

My last holiday was a three-day trip to Thua Thien Hue in Vietnam. I always want to go there, so in the summer of last year, I decided to take a trip to Hue with my family.

We booked a small hostel near Hue Walking Road. We stayed in a twin room, which was clean and had full amenities. The owner was very friendly; he showed us good restaurants, attractions, and how to deal with sellers in the market. We tried local foods such as Bun Bo Hue, Banh Xeo, Banh Bot Loc, etc. The food in Hue is cheap and amazing; I thought that I could eat it all day!

We did some touristy things too. We visited Hue Capital and had a chance to learn more about Vietnam's history. The architecture is very majestic and beautiful. We also went to Thien Mu Pagoda. It is one of the most sacred temples in Vietnam, so we prayed for health and happiness and wished everyone good luck. In the evening, we walked across the historic Trang Tien Bridge. It was so beautiful at night; there were a lot of people walking there. 

It was three amazing days. I felt so relaxed and hope to visit more places in Vietnam.

My last holiday was a two-day trip to Baguio in the Philippines. I had lived there before for five months. So I decided to go back for just a visit on my holiday. Unfortunately, there was heavily raining as we got off the bus. Otherwise, getting a taxi was super hard, and we were waiting for around an hour. Fortunately, I got home safely and I made so much fun with my friends. I visited the old places that I often did because it made me happy and refresh. In conclusion, I had so much fun spending my last holiday in Baguio.

I remember last year when I went with friend to the beach in summer. My Lastsummer holidays was 2days and 3 nights trip to Ngwe Saung Beach in Myanamr . Ngwe Saung, is a beach resort located 48 km west of Pathein, Ayeyarwady Region, Myanmar. In 2014, the town of Ngwesaung had 10,732 people.The beach is 5hours drive with no traffic away from the principal city of Yangon. Ngwe Saung is well know for An unspoilt 15 kilometres stretch of silvery sand and modern amenities have made Ngwe Saung a popular destination for less budget conscious tourists from Lower Myanmar. I booked for our stay at a hotel near the beach, name was "Grand Paradise Hotel ". My friend and i prepared everything we needed on our trip as light food and soft drinks to have on the way to the hotel. And also we prepared necessary clothing for the sea, sun cream and some essential medicines. After 5hours of driving we arrived the hotel at 12PM afternoon and went to our rooms to rest change clothes and take all what we need to go to the beach. This Hotel is near the beach,all services was good and room are cleaned, wide and nice. We put our bags on the table and went to swim in the sea and then went out for lunch that my friend ordered from a fish restaurant . The Crab ,Lobster and fish was fresh and tasty and we enjoyed our meal very much. After lunch we sat under the canopy enjoying the sea view, refreshing breaths ,listening to music and playing fun games. OH really nice Ngwe Saung beach Myanamr.

My last holiday was far away in time in different reasons. We were at black sea coast on September so there where not so much other people. We was drinking a wine that was cheap there and going some excursions

My last holiday. Last summer, in particular on the last weekend of June, I decided to visit Granada, an amazing city in Spain. I visited Granada for the second time with my family, my wife, and two daughters. I was so happy because I visited Granada sights, especially Alhambra Palace, and Civilization Museum. We arrived at the hotel by bus at 11 a.m. The hotel was wonderful and clean, and the food they offer was delicious. My family really liked the traditional typical dishes of Granada, in particular the dish named Baella. During the holiday, I met some of my Spanish colleagues and they invited us to visit their house which is located in a nice village in the city suburb. Really, I liked this place for the large landscape, calmness, and the kind people who live in. On the fifth day of our holiday, we walked around the city and saw the old city which has been built above the mountain. So, you can see the whole city from above it. Despite the enjoyment that we have got, the negative thing about that holiday was that we spent so much money and also many friends need to buy some things from there, so I bought some souvenirs and I hope that I can keep one for myself to remind of that divine place. By and large, this holiday was great and unforgettable thanks to my Spanish friend, Gaspar, who provided me with a Guidebook which makes my trip easy and coy.

My last holiday was four days on São Miguel dos Milagres with my family. We stay on the beach house of my grandpa. There is a pool, and four rooms in that. There we go to the beach, to some interesting restaurants, to a beach clube and to an ice cream shop. I love that travel and i'd love go back to São Miguel dos Milagres.

On the first weekend in March, we took an amazing trip to Barcelona. We went by train from Atocha station and the journey lasted two and a half hours.

When we arrived at the historic Barcelona Sants station, we took the metro to Plaza de Tetuan, which is where we had the apartment. We left our baggage and went to visit the city centre, Las Ramblas, Plaza Catalunya, La Boqueria Market, Paseo de Gracia, etc. On Sunday, we saw the beautiful Sagrada Familia which is my favourite landmark. Later, we went to the incredible Nou Camp stadium to see the Barça game against Valencia. After the game we visited the official store and did some shopping but everything was very expensive. On Monday, before returning to Madrid we went back to the Nou Camp to take a guided tour of the trophy room, changing rooms, benches, and the VIP box.

At the end, we went to the apartment to take the suitcases and so, we took the metro to the Sants station where we boarded the high speed train back to Madrid.

I go to Thailand for a camping holiday, It was fun I go caving on the first day, I see many bets are sleeping on top of the cave.(no time to finish)

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• Practice 1   Multiple choice
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150 Simple Past Examples

Today we are going to learn more about the simple past and how to make sentences with them.

The simple past is a verb tense used to describe a completed action that happened at a specific time in the past.

For example:

Continue reading so you can learn how to make affirmative, negative, and interrogative sentences correctly

Table of Contents

Video: Simple Past Explanation

Simple past: uses, simple past and expressions of time, simple past affirmative sentences, simple past negative sentences, simple past questions, wh-questions in the simple past, simple past conversation questions, simple past: irregular verbs.

Let’s have a look at this video that explains what the past simple is:

The Simple Past is used to talk about actions completed in the past.

• She came back last Thursday.
• I saw her in the building.
• I made a cake for my mom, it was delicious
• I ran to the train station every day
• I sent some flowers to my girlfriend, today is her birthday
• They didn’t agree with me.
• They did their homework, but it was kind of difficult
• They played video games the whole night
• Yesterday I did exercise.
• I didn’t go to the gym last Sunday.

It can also be used to talk about a period of time

• She lived in California for seven years.
• They were in London from Monday to Friday
• Last week, I  stayed  with my sister for a few days
• Joe  lived  in Boston for ten years.
• From 1981 to 1984, he  worked  for a large multinational company.

You will often find the past simple used with time expressions such as these:

• I met him yesterday
• I saw him two weeks ago
• She came to visit me last year
• The last time I went to a concert was  in 2009
• I played soccer from May to June
• I have known him for a long time
•  I worked there for 4 weeks
• in the 1990s , I stole many cars
• She was the best singer of the last century
• In the past , I made so many  mistakes

These are some examples of affirmative sentences in the simple past:

To make the negative form, we add the negative form (didn’t) between the pronoun or subject and the verb. The verb in negative statements will be an infinitive.

To make a question in the simple past, you have to add the word “did” at the beginning of every question and keep the verb in its infinitive form.

These are some examples of questions and answers with the simple past

These are some common questions you can make when talking about the past

• Where did you go on your last vacation?
• What did you do for your last birthday?
• What did you do last week?
• How did you spend your weekend?
• What did you do yesterday morning?
• Did you watch any movies last night? What movies did you watch?
• Who was your first crush?
• What did you do for the last 24 hours?
• What was the last movie that you watched?
• When was the last time you went shopping?
• When was the last time you went on a date?
• When was the last time you had a party?
• Did you do any exercises last week? What exercises did you do?
• How did you spend your days when you were a kid?
• How did you have fun when you were in high school?

These are the most common examples of irregular verbs in English

I am Jose Manuel, English professor and creator of EnglishPost.org, a blog whose mission is to share lessons for those who want to learn and improve their English

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Sentences with the Past Perfect Continuous Tense

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The English Grammar Tenses Collection

Click Here for Step-by-Step Rules, Stories and Exercises to Practice All English Tenses

What does TENSE Mean?

It comes from the Latin word "tempus", which means "time".

Table of Contents

Simple present, simple present story 1, simple present story 2, simple present story 3, simple present story 4, present progressive, present progressive story 1, present progressive story 2, present progressive story 3, present progressive story 4, present perfect, present perfect story 1.

Linda has just walked outside with Grandmother. She wears an apron. So far, she has finished cleaning and washing. She has also gathered seeds and crumbs.

Now Linda and Grandmother are outside. Linda has just dropped some seeds on the ground to feed the birds. The birds have not come yet.

Recently, Grandmother has moved in with Linda's family. She now enjoys living with them.

Grandmother has already sat down on the bench. She also wears an apron. She has just finished cooking.

Present Perfect Story 2

Present perfect story 3, present perfect story 4, present perfect progressive, present perfect progressive story 1, present perfect progressive story 2, present perfect progressive story 3, present perfect progressive story 4, simple past, simple past story 1, simple past story 2, simple past story 3, simple past story 4, past progressive, past progressive story 1, past progressive story 2, past progressive story 3, past progressive story 4, past perfect, past perfect story 1, past perfect story 2, past perfect story 3, past perfect story 4, past perfect progressive, past perfect progressive story 1, past perfect progressive story 2, past perfect progressive story 3, past perfect progressive story 4, simple future, simple future story 1, simple future story 2, simple future story 3, simple future story 4, future progressive, future progressive story 1 , future progressive story 2, future progressive story 3, future progressive story 4, future perfect, future perfect story 1, future perfect story 2, future perfect story 3, future perfect story 4, future perfect progressive, future perfect progressive story 1, future perfect progressive story 2, future perfect progressive story 3, future perfect progressive story 4.

Examples of English Tenses

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Contoh Soal Cermin Cekung dan Cembung beserta Jawabannya Lengkap

Contoh Soal Conditional Sentence Type 1, 2, dan 3 beserta Jawabannya Lengkap

20 Contoh Soal Reaksi Redoks beserta Jawabannya, Pilihan Ganda dan Essay

Contoh Soal Determinan Matriks Ordo 2×2 dan 3×3 beserta Jawabannya

23 Contoh Soal tentang Pemanasan Global beserta Jawabannya, Pilihan Ganda dan Esai

Contoh Soal Simple Past Tense Pilihan Ganda dan Essay beserta Jawabannya

Memperbanyak latihan soal tentang materi simple past tense akan membuatmu semakin terbiasa. Yuk, belajar lagi bersama Mamikos!

Contoh Soal Simple Past Tense Pilihan Ganda dan Essay beserta Jawabannya – Salah satu materi tenses dalam bahasa Inggris yang akan kamu pelajari adalah simple past tense.

Beda dari bentuk simple present tense , simple past tense adalah bentuk waktu lampau yang digunakan untuk menyatakan kejadian atau tindakan yang terjadi dan selesai di masa lampau.

Guna mempermudah kamu dalam belajar, berikut Mamikos telah menyiapkan berbagai contoh soal simple past tense.

• Kumpulan Soal dengan Materi Simple Past Tense

Daftar Isi [ hide ]

Contoh Soal Simple Past Tense Pilihan Ganda

• Contoh Soal Simple Past Tense Essay

Dalam simple past tense , kata kerja bahasa Inggris biasanya berubah menjadi bentuk lampau, seperti penambahan “-ed” pada kebanyakan kata kerja beraturan dalam bahasa Inggris.

Untuk membentuk kalimat simple past tense dalam bahasa Inggris, gunakan kata kerja ( verb ) dalam bentuk lampau ( past tense ) dan tambahkan subjek yang sesuai.

Subject + Verb (past tense) + Object

• She played tennis yesterday.
• They watched a movie last night.

Baca Juga :

13 Contoh Soal Kata Sambung Bahasa Inggris Pilihan Ganda dan Jawabannya

Subject + did not (didn’t) + Verb (base form) + Object

• She didn’t play tennis yesterday.
• They didn’t watch a movie last night.

Interrogatif

Did + Subject + Verb (base form) + Object + ?

• Did she play tennis yesterday?
• Did they watch a movie last night?

Nah, setelah memahami materi di atas kamu dapat mengerjakan soal pilihan ganda di bawah ini yang terdiri dari 35 nomor yang telah disertai dengan jawabannya.

Contoh Soal Simple Past Tense Pilihan Ganda – 1

1. which sentence is in simple past tense.

   a) She is eating lunch right now.

   b) She ate lunch an hour ago.

   c) She eats lunch every day.

   d) She will eat lunch later.

   Jawaban: b) She ate lunch an hour ago.

2. Choose the correct sentence in simple past tense!

   a) They are going to the beach tomorrow.

   b) They went to the beach last weekend.

   c) They go to the beach every summer.

   d) They will go to the beach next month.

   Jawaban: b) They went to the beach last weekend.

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23 Contoh Soal Simple Past Tense Essay dan Jawabannya

Saudara bisa berpindah ke contoh soal bahasa inggris yang lain, semisal setelah mengerjakan latihan soal simple past tense essay, kemudian ingin berlatih soal WH Question atau Pronoun, dengan mengklik menu dropdown " Daftar Latihan Soal Bahasa Inggris " di bawah, semoga membantu anda.

Simple Past Tense adalah kalimat yang digunakan untuk menyatakan aktivitas yang telah berlalu. Seperti kalimat saya telah pergi ke kota kemarin ( I went to city yesterday ). Kami telah membuat topi bulan lalu (We made a hat last month ) 

Cara mudah mengerjakan soal Simple Past Tense dalam bentuk essay adalah dengan memahami arti dari kalimat soal tersebut, dengan memahami arti dari kalimat soal maka anda faham apa yang diinginkan oleh soal, adapun supaya kita memahami arti dari kalimat soal, maka perbendaharaan kosa kata tentang bahasa inggris harus mumpuni.

Cara kedua supaya memudahkan di dalam mengerjakan soal Simple Past Tense dalam bentuk essay, yakni dengan sering anda mengerjakan latihan dan belajar terus menerus tentang penggunaan Simple Past Tense di dalam sebuah kalimat. Dengan sering berlatih maka kemampuan anda di dalam mengerjakan soal Simple Past Tense akan lebih mahir. 

Berikut adalah 23 contoh Simple Past Tense dalam bentuk essay, adapun kunci jawaban soal berada di akhir soal. 

Contoh Soal Simple Past Tense Essay dan Jawabannya

Use the words in the brackets to complete the questions (Gunakan kata-kata yang terdapat di dalam kurung untuk melengkapi kalimat di bawah 

• Did you … to bioscop last night? (go)
• When did they  .. this beer yesterday? (drink)
• I … the butterfly in front of my home yesterday. (see)
• I … In this village since last year. (live)
• What …. She give to you yesterday? (Do)
• He ,,,, stones to the army last week. (throw) 
• What did she … in their store?  ( buy)
• How  … You …  in the morning? (do, eat) 
• The teacher … something to the student yesterday? (say) 
• How did you learn to speak English? “My father …. Me (teach) 
• Roziqin and I played badminton last month, He is much better than me, So Roziqin … easily. (win)
• Abdillah … more than 200 books last year. (write)
• Where did she … this paper? (take)
• Zaid  …. the door yesterday. (close)
• My teacher  …. To me Be excellent each other last month (say)
• The door was open, and the cat ,,, this house . (enter)
• Mr. Budi  … a bread last night. (make)
• I was sick, so I … to bed early (go)
• Tamara was not hungry, so she …. anything (eat)
• They went to ardi’s house, but he …. At home (be)
• I knew my sister was very busy, So I …. her. (disturb)
• We couldn’t manage our car, so we …. it (sell)
• We were very happy with this house, se we …. It. (sell) 

Kunci Jawaban

8. did, eat

16. Entered

19. Didn’t eat

20. Was not

21. Didn’t disturb

23. didn’t sell

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Contoh Soal Simple Past Pilihan Ganda dan Jawabannya

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Gender pay gap in U.S. hasn’t changed much in two decades

The gender gap in pay has remained relatively stable in the United States over the past 20 years or so. In 2022, women earned an average of 82% of what men earned, according to a new Pew Research Center analysis of median hourly earnings of both full- and part-time workers. These results are similar to where the pay gap stood in 2002, when women earned 80% as much as men.

As has long been the case, the wage gap is smaller for workers ages 25 to 34 than for all workers 16 and older. In 2022, women ages 25 to 34 earned an average of 92 cents for every dollar earned by a man in the same age group – an 8-cent gap. By comparison, the gender pay gap among workers of all ages that year was 18 cents.

While the gender pay gap has not changed much in the last two decades, it has narrowed considerably when looking at the longer term, both among all workers ages 16 and older and among those ages 25 to 34. The estimated 18-cent gender pay gap among all workers in 2022 was down from 35 cents in 1982. And the 8-cent gap among workers ages 25 to 34 in 2022 was down from a 26-cent gap four decades earlier.

The gender pay gap measures the difference in median hourly earnings between men and women who work full or part time in the United States. Pew Research Center’s estimate of the pay gap is based on an analysis of Current Population Survey (CPS) monthly outgoing rotation group files ( IPUMS ) from January 1982 to December 2022, combined to create annual files. To understand how we calculate the gender pay gap, read our 2013 post, “How Pew Research Center measured the gender pay gap.”

The COVID-19 outbreak affected data collection efforts by the U.S. government in its surveys, especially in 2020 and 2021, limiting in-person data collection and affecting response rates. It is possible that some measures of economic outcomes and how they vary across demographic groups are affected by these changes in data collection.

In addition to findings about the gender wage gap, this analysis includes information from a Pew Research Center survey about the perceived reasons for the pay gap, as well as the pressures and career goals of U.S. men and women. The survey was conducted among 5,098 adults and includes a subset of questions asked only for 2,048 adults who are employed part time or full time, from Oct. 10-16, 2022. Everyone who took part is a member of the Center’s American Trends Panel (ATP), an online survey panel that is recruited through national, random sampling of residential addresses. This way nearly all U.S. adults have a chance of selection. The survey is weighted to be representative of the U.S. adult population by gender, race, ethnicity, partisan affiliation, education and other categories. Read more about the ATP’s methodology .

Here are the questions used in this analysis, along with responses, and its methodology .

The  U.S. Census Bureau has also analyzed the gender pay gap, though its analysis looks only at full-time workers (as opposed to full- and part-time workers). In 2021, full-time, year-round working women earned 84% of what their male counterparts earned, on average, according to the Census Bureau’s most recent analysis.

Much of the gender pay gap has been explained by measurable factors such as educational attainment, occupational segregation and work experience. The narrowing of the gap over the long term is attributable in large part to gains women have made in each of these dimensions.

Related: The Enduring Grip of the Gender Pay Gap

Even though women have increased their presence in higher-paying jobs traditionally dominated by men, such as professional and managerial positions, women as a whole continue to be overrepresented in lower-paying occupations relative to their share of the workforce. This may contribute to gender differences in pay.

Other factors that are difficult to measure, including gender discrimination, may also contribute to the ongoing wage discrepancy.

Perceived reasons for the gender wage gap

When asked about the factors that may play a role in the gender wage gap, half of U.S. adults point to women being treated differently by employers as a major reason, according to a Pew Research Center survey conducted in October 2022. Smaller shares point to women making different choices about how to balance work and family (42%) and working in jobs that pay less (34%).

There are some notable differences between men and women in views of what’s behind the gender wage gap. Women are much more likely than men (61% vs. 37%) to say a major reason for the gap is that employers treat women differently. And while 45% of women say a major factor is that women make different choices about how to balance work and family, men are slightly less likely to hold that view (40% say this).

Parents with children younger than 18 in the household are more likely than those who don’t have young kids at home (48% vs. 40%) to say a major reason for the pay gap is the choices that women make about how to balance family and work. On this question, differences by parental status are evident among both men and women.

Views about reasons for the gender wage gap also differ by party. About two-thirds of Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents (68%) say a major factor behind wage differences is that employers treat women differently, but far fewer Republicans and Republican leaners (30%) say the same. Conversely, Republicans are more likely than Democrats to say women’s choices about how to balance family and work (50% vs. 36%) and their tendency to work in jobs that pay less (39% vs. 30%) are major reasons why women earn less than men.

Democratic and Republican women are more likely than their male counterparts in the same party to say a major reason for the gender wage gap is that employers treat women differently. About three-quarters of Democratic women (76%) say this, compared with 59% of Democratic men. And while 43% of Republican women say unequal treatment by employers is a major reason for the gender wage gap, just 18% of GOP men share that view.

Pressures facing working women and men

Family caregiving responsibilities bring different pressures for working women and men, and research has shown that being a mother can reduce women’s earnings , while fatherhood can increase men’s earnings .

Employed women and men are about equally likely to say they feel a great deal of pressure to support their family financially and to be successful in their jobs and careers, according to the Center’s October survey. But women, and particularly working mothers, are more likely than men to say they feel a great deal of pressure to focus on responsibilities at home.

About half of employed women (48%) report feeling a great deal of pressure to focus on their responsibilities at home, compared with 35% of employed men. Among working mothers with children younger than 18 in the household, two-thirds (67%) say the same, compared with 45% of working dads.

When it comes to supporting their family financially, similar shares of working moms and dads (57% vs. 62%) report they feel a great deal of pressure, but this is driven mainly by the large share of unmarried working mothers who say they feel a great deal of pressure in this regard (77%). Among those who are married, working dads are far more likely than working moms (60% vs. 43%) to say they feel a great deal of pressure to support their family financially. (There were not enough unmarried working fathers in the sample to analyze separately.)

About four-in-ten working parents say they feel a great deal of pressure to be successful at their job or career. These findings don’t differ by gender.

Gender differences in job roles, aspirations

Overall, a quarter of employed U.S. adults say they are currently the boss or one of the top managers where they work, according to the Center’s survey. Another 33% say they are not currently the boss but would like to be in the future, while 41% are not and do not aspire to be the boss or one of the top managers.

Men are more likely than women to be a boss or a top manager where they work (28% vs. 21%). This is especially the case among employed fathers, 35% of whom say they are the boss or one of the top managers where they work. (The varying attitudes between fathers and men without children at least partly reflect differences in marital status and educational attainment between the two groups.)

In addition to being less likely than men to say they are currently the boss or a top manager at work, women are also more likely to say they wouldn’t want to be in this type of position in the future. More than four-in-ten employed women (46%) say this, compared with 37% of men. Similar shares of men (35%) and women (31%) say they are not currently the boss but would like to be one day. These patterns are similar among parents.

Note: This is an update of a post originally published on March 22, 2019. Anna Brown and former Pew Research Center writer/editor Amanda Barroso contributed to an earlier version of this analysis. Here are the questions used in this analysis, along with responses, and its methodology .

What is the gender wage gap in your metropolitan area? Find out with our pay gap calculator

• Gender & Work
• Gender Equality & Discrimination
• Gender Pay Gap
• Gender Roles

Carolina Aragão is a research associate focusing on social and demographic trends at Pew Research Center

Women have gained ground in the nation’s highest-paying occupations, but still lag behind men

Diversity, equity and inclusion in the workplace, the enduring grip of the gender pay gap, more than twice as many americans support than oppose the #metoo movement, women now outnumber men in the u.s. college-educated labor force, most popular.

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Guest Essay

A Simple Act of Defiance Can Improve Science for Women

By Toby Kiers

Dr. Kiers is a professor of evolutionary biology at Vrije Universiteit in Amsterdam and the executive director of SPUN, a research organization that advocates the protection of mycorrhizal fungal communities.

They don’t tell you beforehand that it will be a choice between having a career in science or starting a family. But that’s the message I heard loud and clear 17 years ago, in my first job after completing my Ph.D. in evolutionary biology. During a routine departmental meeting, a senior academic announced that pregnant women were a financial drain on the department. I was sitting visibly pregnant in the front row. No one said anything.

I took a leave of absence when that child, my daughter, was born. Two years later, I had a son. That second pregnancy was a surprise, and I worried that taking another leave would sink my career. So I pressed on. When my son was barely 3 weeks old, I flew nine hours to a conference with him strapped to my chest. Before delivering my talk, I made a lame joke that the audience should forgive any “brain fog.” Afterward, an older woman pulled me aside and told me that being self-deprecating in public was a disservice to women scientists.

It felt like an impossible choice: to be a bad scientist or a bad mother.

The data suggests I wasn’t alone in feeling those pressures. A study published in 2019 found that more than 40 percent of female scientists in the United States leave full-time work in science after their first child. In 2016, men held about 70 percent of all research positions in science worldwide. Especially for field researchers like me, who collect data in remote and sometimes perilous locations, motherhood can feel at odds with a scientific career.

How have I addressed the problem? Through an act of academic defiance: I bring my kids with me on my scientific expeditions. It’s a form of rebellion that is available to mothers not just in the sciences but also in other disciplines that require site visits and field work, such as architecture and journalism. Bringing your kids to work with you doesn’t have to be something you do only once a year .

It started for me as a simple necessity. When my son was just under 2 and my daughter not yet 4, I took them on an expedition to the base of Mount Kenya in Africa, to study how fungi help trees defend themselves against the elephants and giraffes who feed on them. My son was still nursing, and I didn’t want to stop working. My husband, a poet, came along to stay with them at base camp.

As time went on, I began to embrace the decision to bring my kids with me on my expeditions, not as an exigency of parenting but as a kind of feminist act. When meeting other scientists in the field, the reaction was typically the same: They assumed my husband was leading the expedition. Once the facts were established, researchers were supportive and even willing to lend a hand.

Looking back at those expeditions now — after more than a dozen, in far-flung areas around the globe — I understand that bringing them into the field was more than a rebellion: Their presence on those trips also changed the way I do science, and for the better.

I started tasting soils in the field — a technique I now use to notice subtle differences across ecosystems — only after seeing my kids eat dirt. Children have an uncanny ability to make local friends quickly; many of those new friends have led me to obscure terrain and hidden fungal oases that I otherwise would never have come across. And my kids’ naïve minds routinely force me to rethink old assumptions by asking questions that are simultaneously absurd and profound. Can you taste clouds? Do fungi dream? How loud are our footsteps underground?

What can feel like an inconvenience is often a blessing in disguise. Children force the patience that scientific discovery demands. Last year, my kids and I traveled to Lesotho , in southern Africa. Collecting fungi in such a rugged landscape required horses, guides and months of precise planning. But my daughter caught the flu. Rather than mapping underground fungal life, we spent the week in a hut in a highland village with no running water or electricity, eating fermented sorghum. As the days ticked by, I began to panic, thinking of the fungi that would remain unsampled.

But one morning, as my daughter’s health improved, we were invited to cross a small mountain pass on horses. The local herder allowed me to collect dark soil among the agricultural ruins of his ancestral village. It was a type of soil I had never seen — with fungi that would have remained undescribed had we stayed on track. Thank you, chaos; thank you, kids.

Bringing my kids with me continues to challenge expectations, and not only among fellow scientists. In the summer of 2022, my kids and I embarked on an expedition in Italy to study fungi exposed to extreme heat and wildfire. Hiking across mountains with kids was hard and made even more arduous because a documentary film crew followed us. As we wrangled fungi in burn sites, the cameraman strategically positioned me for shots without my kids, presumably so the footage would look more “professional.”

Female scientists are right to fear being seen as unprofessional. How we talk, how we dress, is constantly under scrutiny — and so many of us mirror our male colleagues. Any deviation from that standard is often considered suspect. The primatologist Jane Goodall famously placed her young son in a cage so that he could safely join her in the field, and it is still a point of controversy, decades later.

At its core, feminism is about having the power to choose. For female scientists, this means having the ability to bring children into the field — or the full support to leave them at home. The pressure is acute because, as research shows, women on scientific teams are significantly less likely than men to be credited with authorship. So for me, it is crucial to keep collecting data with my own hands.

What do my kids make of all this? They both love and hate our expeditions. Frustrated by a grueling day of field work recently, my teenage daughter screamed at me, “You love science more than you love me!” In that moment, she — like so much of the scientific world — believed that the decision was binary: science or family. But by taking her with me into the field, I am relentlessly affirming that I won’t make that choice. My kids won’t make that choice either: They recently helped start a youth climate group to help protect soil fungi, including by organizing protests.

We are taught that good science requires detachment. But what if being a mother — with all the attachments that entails — allows you to explore different but equally fruitful scientific narratives? Last year, an article by the editor who oversees the Science journals argued that scientists should not be “afraid to acknowledge their humanity.” We should take that sound advice a step further and challenge the ideal of detachment. Perhaps by exposing our vulnerabilities — such as the children we are raising — we can change the system.

Toby Kiers ( @KiersToby ) is a professor of evolutionary biology at Vrije Universiteit in Amsterdam and the executive director of SPUN , a research organization that advocates for the protection of mycorrhizal fungal communities.

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The New Rules of Political Journalism

In this election, the reporting strategies of the past will not be enough.

This is an edition of The Atlantic Daily, a newsletter that guides you through the biggest stories of the day, helps you discover new ideas, and recommends the best in culture. Sign up for it here.

In our digitally chaotic world, relying on the election-reporting strategies of the past is like bringing the rules of chess to the Thunderdome.

First, here are three new stories from The Atlantic :

• The October 7 rape denialists
• Finding justice in Palestine
• Biden’s safe, polite campaign stop in Scranton

This past weekend, I was on a panel at the annual conference of the International Symposium on Online Journalism, in beautiful downtown Austin. Several journalists discussed the question: Are we going to get it right this time? Have the media learned their lessons, and are journalists ready for the vertiginous slog of the 2024 campaign?

My answer: only if we realize how profoundly the rules of the game have changed.

Lest we need reminding, this year’s election features a candidate who incited an insurrection, called for terminating sections of the Constitution, was found liable for what a federal judge says was “rape” as it is commonly understood, faces 88 felony charges, and—I’m tempted to add “etcetera” here, but that’s the problem, isn’t it? The volume and enormity of it all is impossible to take in.

The man is neither a riddle nor an enigma. He lays it all out there: his fawning over the world’s authoritarians, his threats to abandon our allies, his contempt for the rule of law, his intention to use the federal government as an instrument of retribution . Journalists must be careful not to give in to what Brian Klaas has called the “ Banality of Crazy .” As I’ve written in the past, there have been so many outrages and so many assaults on decency that it’s easy to become numbed by the cascade of awfulness.

The former White House communications director Dan Pfeiffer points out a recent example in his newsletter: On a radio show earlier this month, Donald Trump bizarrely suggested that Joe Biden was high on cocaine when he delivered his energetic State of the Union address. It was a startling moment, yet several major national media outlets did not cover the story.

And when Trump called for the execution of General Mark Milley, it didn’t have nearly the explosive effect it should have. “I had expected every website and all the cable news shows to lead with a story about Trump demanding the execution of the highest military officer in the country,” this magazine’s editor in chief, Jeffrey Goldberg, told The Washington Post . “If Barack Obama or George W. Bush had done so, I’m sure [the news media] would have been all over it.” (Trump’s threats against Milley came after The Atlantic published a profile of Milley by Goldberg.)

In our digitally chaotic world, relying on the reporting strategies of the past is like bringing the rules of chess to the Thunderdome. There has, of course, been some progress. The major cable networks no longer carry Trump’s rallies live without context, but they still broadcast town-hall meetings and interviews with the former president, which boost ratings. NBC’s abortive decision to hire Ronna McDaniel, a former chair of the Republican National Committee, as a contributor, despite her role in spreading lies about the 2020 election, highlighted the disconnect between this moment and much of the national media.

And then there is the internet. It is certainly possible that richer, more insightful media will emerge from the digital revolution, but we’re obviously not there now. Back in 2016, we worried that social media had become a vector for disinformation and bigotry, but since then, we’ve seen Elon Musk’s extraordinary enshittification of X. In 2016, we worried (too late) about foreign interference and bots. In 2024, we are going to have to contend with deepfakes created by AI.

This year will see some of the best journalism of our lifetime. (You’ll find much of it here in The Atlantic .) But because both the media and their audiences are badly fractured, much of that reporting is siloed off from the voters who need it most. Because millions of Americans are locked in information bubbles, half of the country either won’t see important journalism about the dangers of a second Trump term or won’t believe it.

As Paul Farhi notes in The Atlantic , MAGA-friendly websites have experienced massive drops in traffic, but social media continues to thrive on negativity and providing dopamine hits of anger and fear. And of distraction—last week, the most-liked videos on TikTok about the presidential race included a video of a man singing to Biden and Trump’s visit to a Chick-fil-A .

To put it mildly, the arc of social media does not bend toward Edward R. Murrow–style journalism.

So what’s to be done? I don’t have any easy answers, because I don’t think they exist. Getting it right this time does not mean that journalists need to pull their punches in covering Biden or become slavish defenders of his administration’s policies. In fact, that would only make matters worse. But perhaps we could start with some modest proposals.

First, we should redefine newsworthy . Klaas argues that journalists need to emphasize the magnitude rather than simply the novelty of political events. Trump’s ongoing attacks on democracy may not be new, but they define the stakes of 2024. So although live coverage of Trump rallies without any accompanying analysis remains a spectacularly bad idea, it’s important to neither ignore nor mute the dark message that Trump delivers at every event. As a recent headline in The Guardian put it, “Trump’s Bizarre, Vindictive Incoherence Has to Be Heard in Full to Be Believed.”

Why not relentlessly emphasize the truth, and publish more fact-checked transcripts that highlight his wilder and more unhinged rants? (Emphasizing magnitude is, of course, a tremendous challenge for journalists when the amplification mechanisms of the modern web—that is, social-media algorithms—are set by companies that have proved to be hostile to the distribution of information from reputable news outlets.)

The media challenge will be to emphasize the abnormality of Donald Trump without succumbing to a reactionary ideological tribalism, which would simply drive audiences further into their silos. Put another way: Media outlets will need all the credibility they can muster when they try to sound the alarm that none of this is normal . And it is far more important to get it right than to get it fast, because every lapse will be weaponized.

The commitment to “fairness” should not, however, mean creating false equivalencies or fake balance. (An exaggerated report about Biden’s memory lapses , for example, should not be a bigger story than Trump’s invitation to Vladimir Putin to invade European countries .)

In the age of Trump, it is also important that members of the media not be distracted by theatrics generally. (This includes Trump’s trial drama, the party conventions, and even— as David Frum points out in The Atlantic —the debates.) Relatedly, the stakes are simply too high to wallow in vibes, memes, or an obsessive focus on within-the-margin-of-error polls. Democracy can indeed be crushed by authoritarianism. But it can also be suffocated by the sort of trivia that often dominates social media.

And, finally, the Prime Directive of 2024: Never, ever become numbed by the endless drumbeat of outrages.

• Political analysis needs more witchcraft.
• Right-wing media are in trouble.

Today’s News

• The Senate dismissed the articles of impeachment against Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas and ruled that they were unconstitutional, ending his trial before it got under way.
• House Speaker Mike Johnson will proceed with a plan, backed by President Joe Biden, to vote on separate bills to provide aid to Ukraine, Israel, and U.S. allies in the Indo-Pacific. The proposed move has raised criticism from some conservative representatives.
• Four Columbia University officials, including the president, Nemat Shafik, testified in a congressional committee hearing about student safety, free speech, and anti-Semitism on campus.
• The Trump Trials : The first days of the criminal case against Donald Trump have been mundane, even boring—and that’s remarkable, George T. Conway III writes.
• The Weekly Planet : The cocoa shortage could make chocolate more expensive forever, Yasmin Tayag writes.

Explore all of our newsletters here.

Evening Read

Something Weird Is Happening With Caesar Salads

By Ellen Cushing

On a November evening in Brooklyn, in 2023, I was in trouble (hungry). I ordered a kale Caesar at a place I like. Instead, I got: a tangle of kale, pickled red onion, and “sweet and spicy almonds,” dressed in a thinnish, vaguely savory liquid and topped with a glob of crème fraîche roughly the size and vibe of a golf ball. It was a pretty weird food. We are living through an age of unchecked Caesar-salad fraud. Putative Caesars are dressed with yogurt or miso or tequila or lemongrass; they are served with zucchini, orange zest, pig ear, kimchi, poached duck egg, roasted fennel, fried chickpeas, buffalo-cauliflower fritters, tōgarashi -dusted rice crackers. They are missing anchovies, or croutons, or even lettuce … Molly Baz is a chef, a cookbook author, and a bit of a Caesar obsessive—she owns a pair of sneakers with “CAE” on one tongue and “SAL” on the other—and she put it succinctly when she told me, “There’s been a lot of liberties taken, for better or for worse.”

Read the full article.

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Culture Break

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Stephanie Bai contributed to this newsletter.

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