Past Tense

(A) SIMPLE PAST TENSE - The simple past is used to describe an action that occurred in the past, sometime before the moment of speaking. The regular past tense verb is marked with the [ed] ending as in (walk - walked). There are different ways to mark the irregular past tense verb. The most common is to change the vowel as in (sing - sang). Another is a total new spelling of the word as in (buy-bought), which we called as irregular verbs.

*(Above definition is from http://newton.uor.edu/facultyfolder/rider/verbtenses.htm)

(B) Forming the simple past tense

With most verbs, the simple past is created simply by adding -ED. However, with some verbs, you need to add -ES or change the ending a little. Here are the rules:

Verb ending in...	How to make the simple past	Examples
e	Add -D	live - lived date - dated
Consonant + y	Change y to i, then add -ED	try - tried cry - cried
One vowel + one consonant (but NOT w or y)	Double the consonant, then add -ED	tap - tapped commit - committed
[anything else]	Add -ED	boil - boiled fill - filled hand - handed

*Above is from this website. Go to the link or here for the online exercises.

(C) Other irregular verbs

Other irregular verbs fall into three main categories:

Category	Examples
Verbs which don't change	cut - cut hit - hit fit - fit
Verbs which change their vowel	get - got sit - sat drink - drank
Verbs which change completely	catch - caught bring - brought teach - taught

*Above is from this website. Click here for online exercises.


**For more information on tenses, click here.


Learning PAST TENSE through GAMES

1. SpeedWord on Past Tense

Past Tense of Irregular Verbs--1

Past Tense of Irregular Verbs--2

Past Tense of Irregular Verbs--3

Past Tense of Irregular Verbs--4

Past Tense of Irregular Verbs--5

Past Tense of Irregular Verbs--6

Past Tense of Irregular Verbs--7

This should be quite easy for you as a warm-up. Re-try for each exercise has the same list of words so make sure you play it well for the first time round.



2. This game tests you on your understanding of the context (sentences) and also the correct past tense to use. For each question (see below), you can choose to answer question that is the easiest (1 point) till the most difficult (3 points). If you answered correctly, you can shoot the ball into the net.


3. Match the Past tense with Simple tense here with seven versions.

Version one,Version two,Version three,Version four,Version five,Version six,Version seven

4. Ten questions to test your knowledge of irregular past tense here.

5. BBC Starship here.

6. Cloze passage with simple present and past tense here.

7. This game Verb Power tests you on what is main and helping verb.
Examples: will (helping verb) eat (main verb); should (helping verb) rush (main verb); is (helping verb) going (main verb).

8. English Irregular Game allows two players. If you are doing this at home, you can simply type in any two names to start the game. The questions with the highest point are the more challenging ones.