Remember we learned with the present that there are two common types: past simple and past progressive. With the past tense there is also a past simple and a past progressive. 

The simple past talks about something that happened before. It happened and it finished. (Some words are regular and just have -ed added at the end like walked, helped, and played. Others are irregular and have many variations like ate, began, and slept.)

Examples: I played tennis with Billy. I taught French.