had / started / came

Past simple 2: regular and irregular verbs

Past simple (2)

We use the past simple to talk about:

-finished actions in the past, often with definite time.

  • I went to the beach on Saturday afternoon.
  • They got married in 1976.

-a series of finished actions in the past.

  • She came home, made a cup of tea, and read the newspaper.
  • We arrived at seven. A woman showed us to our room and we sat down.

Affirmative and negative

I/You/He/She/We/They

arrived
didn't arrive

yesterday.

Question

Did

I/you/he/she/we/they

arrive

yesterday?

 

Past form of regular verbs and irregular verbs

Some verbs have regular past forms and other verbs have irregular past forms.

  • Normally I start at 9 o'clock, but yesterday I started at 10.
    (start = a regular verb)
  • Normally I go to the gym, but yesterday I went to the swimming pool.
    (go = an irregular verb)

To form the past simple of regular verbs, add -ed to the infinitive.
When the infinitive ends in e add -d.
When the infinitive ends in y, the y changes to i and then add -ed.

Infinitive Past simple
finish finished
decide decided
study studied

1. Past tense verbs.

Sort the verbs. Are they regular or irregular?

2. Past tense: Regular verbs.

Change the verbs in red into the past tense.

3. Past tense: Irregular verbs.

Match the infinitive and the past tense of these verbs.

4. Pronunciation: Infinitive and past of irregular verbs.

Can you remember? Write the missing words to complete the table.

Now listen to the verbs, and practise saying them.

5. Past tense: Negatives.

The reporters didn't believe him.

Bill has a friend called Bruce. Bill is lucky, but Bruce isn't very lucky. Write sentences about Bruce.

For example:

Bill won a car. Bruce didn't win a car.

For more information about irregular verbs see the Grammar Reference.

6. Find the mistakes.

Select the words that are not correct.