Question

what is simple past

Answer 1

If you're talking about simple past tense, it is used to express the idea that an action started and finished at a specific time in the past. Sometimes, a speaker may not mention a specific time, but they do have one in mind. Here's some examples of what simple past tense looks like (the words in caps are the simple past tense) :
I SAW a movie yesterday
I DIDN'T see a play yesterday
DID you HAVE dinner yesterday
if you need more info there's some on this site, www.englishpage.com/verbpage/simplepast.html