Past Simple: Affirmative (Regular Verbs)

When we want to talk about things that happened in the past, we use the past tense. We use the Past Simple with time expressions like: yesterday, last night, last week, last month, last year, two days ago, three weeks ago.

There are two kinds of verbs in the Past Simple: regular verbs and irregular verbs (which we'll discuss in the next lesson).

Regular verbs are verbs that take -ed in the past.

In the Past Simple, the verb stays the same for all the pronouns.

When we add -ed to the verbs, it sometimes sounds like d, sometimes like t, and sometimes like id.

Spelling Rules

• With most regular verbs, we simply add -ed to the base form.
  For example: happen = happened
• With verbs that end in e, we add d.
  For example: smile = smiled

  arrive = arrived
• With verbs that end in a consonant and y, we drop the y and add -ied.
  For example: try = tried
  If there’s a vowel before the y, we leave the y and only add -ed.
  For example: play = played
• With one-syllable verbs that end in consonant-one vowel-consonant combinations, we double the last consonant.
  For example: stop = stopped
  With two-syllable verbs, we double the last consonant if the stress is on the last syllable.
  For example: admit = admitted

  But remember, when the stress is on the first syllable, we just add -ed.

  listen = listened

Writing Paragraphs

In English, a paragraph is a group of sentences organized around a main idea stated in the first sentence (topic sentence). The topic sentence is followed by several sentences that provide supporting details. The last sentence, the concluding statement, summarizes the paragraph.