1. Introduction
Past tense describe an completed action that has happend in the past, many past tense verbs are formed by adding “ed” to the verb : paly = played, speak speaked …
2. How to Form a Past Simple
2.1. Regular Verbs
To form a past simple with regular verbs you will add “ed” to the verb like :
- I closed the door.
- She cooked a dinner
- My father died last year.
- She lived in Paris in 1988.
- It rained yesterday.
- Jack watched TV all night.
2.2. Regular Verbs ending in an “…e”
Regular verbs ending in a silent “e” (live, close,wipe etc..) take /-d/ in the simple past and past participle:
- I lived in New York since 2000.
- He closed the window.
- they wiped the floor.
2.3. Regular Verbs ending in an “…y”
Regular verbs ending in a consonant + y take /-ied/ in the simple past and past participle (the y becomes an i followed by /-ed/)
- marry=married
- pply / applied; bully / bullied; bury / buried;
- carry / carried; copy / copied; cry / cried;
- dry / dried; ferry / ferried; fry / fried;
- hurry / hurried; marry married;
- parry / parried; pry / pried; query / queried;
- rely / relied; tarry / tarried; tidy / tidied;
- try / tried; vary / varied; worry / worried
3. Special cases of the -ed forms:
Follow these rules when there is a consonant after a vowel (stop, ban, open, offer…)
- If there is a consonant after a stressed vowel at the end of the word, double the consonant
stop – stopped
ban – banned
swap – swapped - If the vowel is not stressed, we do not double it:
open – opened (Here the stress is on’o’, not the ‘e’.)
offer – offered ( Here the stress is on ‘o’, not the ‘e’.)
4. Simple past, irregular verb
Some verbs are irregular in the simple past:
to go
- He went to a club last night.
- Did he go to the cinema last night?
- He didn’t go to bed early last night.
to give
- We gave her a doll for her birthday.
- They didn’t give Jean their new address.
- Did Barry give you my passport?
to come
- My parents came to visit me last month.
- We didn’t come because it was raining.
- Did he come to your party last month?
Table of the most common irregular verbs :
infinitive |
---|
be |
I am |
he is |
we are |
beat |
become |
begin |
bet* |
blow |
break |
bring |
build |
burst |
buy |
catch |
choose |
come |
cost |
cut |
deal |
do |
draw |
drink |
drive |
eat |
fall |
feed |
feel |
fight |
find |
fly |
forget |
freeze |
get |
give |
go |
grow |
hang |
have |
hear |
hide |
hit |
hold |
hurt |
keep |
know |
lay |
lead |
leave |
lend |
let |
lie** |
light* |
lose |
make |
mean |
meet |
pay |
put |
read |
ride |
ring |
rise |
run |
say |
see |
sell |
send |
set |
shake |
steal |
shine |
shoot |
show* |
shut |
sing |
sink |
sit |
sleep |
slide |
speak |
spend |
spring |
stand |
stick |
swear |
sweep |
swim |
swing |
take |
teach |
tear |
tell |
think |
throw |
understand |
wake* |
wear |
weave |
win |
write |
simple past |
---|
was/were |
I was |
he was |
we were |
beat |
became |
began |
bet |
blew |
broke |
brought |
built |
burst |
bought |
caught |
chose |
came |
cost |
cut |
dealt |
did |
drew |
drank |
drove |
ate |
fell |
fed |
felt |
fought |
found |
flew |
forgot |
froze |
got |
gave |
went |
grew |
hung |
had |
heard |
hid |
hit |
held |
hurt |
kept |
knew |
laid |
led |
left |
lent |
let |
lay |
lit |
lost |
made |
meant |
met |
paid |
put |
read |
rode |
rang |
rose |
ran |
said |
saw |
sold |
sent |
set |
shook |
stole |
shone |
shot |
showed |
shut |
sang |
sank |
sat |
slept |
slid |
spoke |
spent |
sprang |
stood |
stuck |
swore |
swept |
swam |
swung |
took |
taught |
tore |
told |
thought |
threw |
understood |
woke |
wore |
wove |
won |
wrote |
past participle |
---|
been |
I have been |
he has been |
we have been |
beaten |
become |
begun |
bet |
blown |
broken |
brought |
built |
burst |
bought |
caught |
chosen |
come |
cost |
cut |
dealt |
done |
drawn |
drunk |
driven |
eaten |
fallen |
fed |
felt |
fought |
found |
flown |
forgotten |
frozen |
got, gotten |
given |
gone |
grown |
hung |
had |
heard |
hidden |
hit |
held |
hurt |
kept |
known |
laid |
led |
left |
lent |
let |
lain |
lit |
lost |
made |
meant |
met |
paid |
put |
read |
ridden |
rung |
risen |
run |
said |
seen |
sold |
sent |
set |
shaken |
stolen |
shone |
shot |
shown |
shut |
sung |
sunk |
sat |
slept |
slid |
spoken |
spent |
sprung |
stood |
stuck |
sworn |
swept |
swum |
swung |
taken |
taught |
torn |
told |
thought |
thrown |
understood |
woken |
worn |
woven |
won |
written |
5. Notes on affirmative, negative, & interrogative forms
5.1. Affirmative:
The affirmative of the simple past tense is simple.
- I was in paris last year
- She had a headache yesterday.
- We did our homework last night.
5.1. Interrogative:
Past simple in question, for all verbs (regular & irregular) in simple past we use auxiliary “to do” but we need the participle tense so we will use did + infinitive form of the verb :
Example:
- Did she talk to him this morning?
- Did you ride your bicycles yesterday?
- Did they work on the farm last year ?
5.1. Negative:
Past simple in the negation we also use participle tense of the verb “to do” = did, For the negative and interrogative simple past form of “to do” as an ordinary verb, use the auxiliary “did” :
did + not (didn’t) + infinitive form of the verb
- I didn’t have any money.
- He didn’t have time to visit the Eiffel Tower.