Past Simple
Regular & irregular verbs for finished past actions.
We use the Past Simple to talk about actions and events that started and finished at a definite time in the past. With regular verbs we form it by adding -ed to the base form: 'work' becomes 'worked' and 'play' becomes 'played'. Spelling sometimes changes: verbs ending in a consonant + y change y to i and add -ed ('study' → 'studied'), and short verbs ending in one vowel + one consonant double the final consonant ('stop' → 'stopped'). Many common verbs are irregular and must be learned by heart, for example 'go' → 'went', 'see' → 'saw', 'have' → 'had', 'make' → 'made', 'come' → 'came' and 'take' → 'took'. To make negatives and questions we use the helper 'did': we say 'I did not (didn't) go' and 'Did you go?', and after 'did' the main verb returns to its base form. The Past Simple is often used with past time markers such as 'yesterday', 'last week', 'two days ago' and 'in 2010'. For example: 'Yesterday I watched a film, but my brother didn't watch it, and our parents went to the cinema.'
Rules
- 1Regular verbs add -ed: work → worked, play → played; the form is the same for all subjects.
- 2Spelling: study → studied (consonant + y), stop → stopped (double the final consonant).
- 3Many verbs are irregular and must be memorised: go → went, see → saw, have → had, make → made.
- 4Negatives and questions use 'did' + the base form: 'didn't go', 'Did you go?' (NOT 'didn't went').
- 5Common time markers: yesterday, last night/week/year, two days ago, in 2010.
Practice
10 easy · 10 medium · 10 hard