🔙 Past Simple – Regular & Irregular Verbs

📚 Regular Verbs

We often add -ed to the base form of the verb to make the Past Simple (for regular verbs).

✅ Examples:

  • We often watch TV in the evening. → We watched TV yesterday evening.
  • I work in a café. → I worked in a café last summer.

✏️ Spelling Rules – When to Double the Consonant:

  • Rule: Double the final consonant if the verb ends in consonant + vowel + consonant and is one syllable.
  • Examples: stop → stopped, plan → planned, chat → chatted
  • Two syllables: Double only if the stress is on the last syllable.
    • reFER → referred, preFER → preferred
    • VIsit → visited ❌ (no doubling, stress on first syllable)

🎲 Irregular Verbs

Irregular verbs do not follow the -ed rule. You have to learn their past forms individually.

📌 Examples:

  • go → went
  • have → had
  • do → did
  • eat → ate
  • see → saw

🧠 Most Common Irregular Verbs (A1 Level):

  • be → was/were
  • become → became
  • begin → began
  • come → came
  • do → did
  • eat → ate
  • find → found
  • get → got
  • give → gave
  • go → went
  • have → had
  • know → knew
  • leave → left
  • make → made
  • meet → met
  • read → read
  • see → saw
  • take → took
  • think → thought
  • write → wrote

🛠️ Use

1️⃣ Past Finished Actions or States:

Use the Past Simple to describe actions or situations that happened in the past and are now finished.

Common time expressions: yesterday, last week, two days ago, in 2015, etc.

  • I cleaned my room yesterday. 🧹
  • The day was sunny. ☀️

2️⃣ Past Repeated Actions:

Use the Past Simple to talk about habits or things that happened regularly in the past but don’t happen now.

Common adverbs: always, often, every day, usually

  • When I was a child, I played outside every day. 🏃
  • At school, we often walked home together. 🚶

✅ Summary

  • Regular verbs ➝ add -ed
  • Spelling rules: double consonant when needed
  • Irregular verbs ➝ learn their past forms
  • Used for finished actions and repeated habits in the past

🔍 Examples: Irregular Verbs in Past Simple

Here are some common irregular verbs used in Past Simple sentences:

  • go → went: We went to the park yesterday. 🌳
  • have → had: She had tea and toast this morning. 🍞
  • do → did: I did my homework last night. 📚
  • eat → ate: They ate pasta for dinner. 🍝
  • see → saw: He saw a cat in the street. 🐈
  • get → got: I got a new book last week. 📖
  • make → made: We made a salad for lunch. 🥗
  • take → took: She took a photo in the garden. 📸
  • come → came: My friends came to my house on Sunday. 🏡
  • write → wrote: He wrote a short note for his friend. ✍️

💡 Tip: The verb form changes completely – no "-ed"! It's important to memorize these forms.

Exercises:

Past Simple – Regular & Irregular Verbs

Write the past simple forms of the regular verbs in brackets to complete these sentences.
1
(play)
Yesterday, I tennis with my friends.
2
(wash)
She her car last weekend.
3
(watch)
We a movie on TV last night.
4
(clean)
They the house before the guests arrived.
5
(open)
He the window because it was very hot.
6
(stop)
Laura the car at the red light.
7
(explain)
The teacher the grammar rule again.
8
(visit)
My parents the museum on Saturday.
9
(start)
I my new job last month.
10
(try)
Tom to solve the problem by himself.

Past Simple – Regular & Irregular Verbs

Write the past simple forms of the irregular verbs in brackets to complete these sentences.
1
I (go) to the cinema last night.
2
She (be) very happy yesterday.
3
They (have) a great time at the party.
4
We (see) a shooting star on our walk.
5
He (take) the wrong bus this morning.
6
You (find) your keys under the couch.
7
Mary (break) the glass by accident.
8
John (drive) to work yesterday.
9
The children (eat) all the cake.
10
I (choose) the blue dress for the event.

Past Simple – Regular & Irregular Verbs

Complete the text with these verbs in past simple.
writemeetseebuy arrivebookvisitleave goeat
Last summer I 1 in Rome after a long flight. I 2 a small hotel near the Colosseum, and then I 3 all the famous sights on foot. On my first day I 4 the Pantheon and the Trevi Fountain. In the evening I 5 to a little trattoria and 6 pasta carbonara for the first time—it was delicious! The next morning I 7 a kind local guide who 8 a short walking tour for me. Before I 9 Rome, I 10 a small souvenir for each of my friends.