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. Past tense.

Complete the text by changing the verbs in red into the correct form.

For more information about irregular verbs see the Grammar Reference.

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.

6. Find the mistakes.

Select the words that are not correct.