Verbs – Past Tense



In this lesson, we will learn

  • the Simple Past Tense
  • how to form simple past tense for regular verbs
  • how to recognize and understand the simple past tense
  • how to pronounce and spell the past tense of regular verbs

Related Topics: Simple Past Tense for irregular verbs.

The Simple Past Tense

Verbs have different forms, called tenses. The tense of a verb tells us when the action happens.

We use the simple past tense to talk about things that happened in the past.

Examples:

The children visited the zoo last week.
The plane landed a few minutes ago.
Jerry dried his clothes in the sun.

Regular Verbs

For most verbs, the simple past tense is created by adding a d, ed or ied at the end of the word. These are called regular verbs. There are also irregular verbs which do not follow this pattern.

The following are some of the rules for regular verbs.

For verbs ending in e add a d.

Example:

Present Tense

Past Tense

live

lived

love

loved

date

dated

agree

agreed

die

died

queue

queued

stare

stared

invite

invited

For verbs ending in consonant + y, change y to i and add ed.

Present Tense

Past Tense

try

tried

carry

carried

dirty

dirtied

hurry

hurried

spy

spied

cry

cried

dirty

dirtied

For verbs that are one syllable and ending in vowel + consonant (but not y or w), double the consonant and then add ed.

Present Tense

Past Tense

fan

fanned

grab

grabbed

nod

nodded

pat

patted

pin

pinned

rip

ripped

slam

slammed

For other verbs, just add ed.

Present Tense

Past Tense

cross

crossed

jump

jumped

lift

lifted

allow

allowed

open

opened

paint

painted

walk

walked

laugh

laughed

There are many verbs that do not follow these rules. They are called irregular verbs.

Recognizing and understanding the simple past tense

The Simple Past Tense - Basic English Grammar
Recognizing and understanding the simple past tense. (Part one)



Recognizing and understanding the simple past tense. (Part two)







Recognizing and understanding the simple past tense. (Part three)
This segment gives additional practice in forming the simple past tense with regular and irregular verbs. Wh- and YES-NO questions are also presented and practiced.



Recognizing and understanding the simple past tense. (Part four)
This segment gives additional practice in forming questions and presents rules for pronouncing the "-ed" ending in regular verbs.





Pronouncing and Spelling Past Tense Verbs

This video explains how to pronounce past tense regular verbs in English.



This video shows the pronunciation of regular verbs. The "ed" ending might be a "d" or a "t," depending on what comes before it.







This video shows how to pronounce regular verbs in the past tense in English.



ESL students can practice listening to and pronouncing the regular verbs in past tense (-ed endings).








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