🔙 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 a film on Saturday. → We watched a film last Saturday.
  • I live in Barcelona. → I lived in Barcelona in the 90s.

✏️ 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, rob → robbed
  • 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.

  • Jessica called me last night. 📞
  • Rachel was a very good writer. ✍️

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 ate sweets every day. 🍬
  • At school, I always played football during break. ⚽

✅ 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 cinema last night. 🎬
  • have → had: She had a big breakfast this morning. 🍳
  • do → did: I did my homework yesterday. 📚
  • eat → ate: They ate pizza for dinner. 🍕
  • see → saw: He saw a shooting star. 🌠
  • get → got: I got a new phone last week. 📱
  • make → made: We made a cake for her birthday. 🎂
  • take → took: She took beautiful photos on holiday. 📸
  • come → came: My friends came over for lunch. 🏡
  • write → wrote: He wrote a letter to his grandma. 💌

💡 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.