REGULAR PAST TENSE VERBS

Past tense verbs indicate something that has already happened. The action is in the past. Regular past tense verbs are easy to change because all we need to convert them from present to past tense is to add ED to the end of the Infinitive (or base form) of the verb. Need a reminder about Infinitives? That is the verb with TO in front of it in simple present tense as in TO WORK and TO PLAY. These verbs are both regular past tense, so all we do is add ED to the base form to get workED and playED. Many verbs in English follow this form. Here are some more examples: Toss becomes tossED, walk becomes walkED and reach becomes reachED. What if your verb already has an E on the end, like the verbs LIVE, LIKE, AND LOVE? Do you add another ED? Nope, you don’t need another E so just add the D to get liveD, likeD, and loveD. Sometimes you have to add an extra letter to make the regular past tense such as in step (past tense stepPED) and rob (past tense robBED) Some exceptions to this rule are being verbs and helping verbs. What if the past tense verb sounds weird with an ED or the spelling looks off? Chances are you’ve got an irregular past tense verb, and those can be tricky.

IRREGULAR PAST TENSE VERBS

Just as with regular past tense verbs, irregular past tense verbs indicate events that have already happened in the past. The action is no longer taking place. These verbs are different because it’s not as simple as adding ED to the end of every word. Irregular past tense verbs actually change form to convert from present to past tense. How cool is that? Here are some examples of irregular past tense verbs: see (past tense SAW), read, (past tense is READ rhymes with red), and swim (past tense is SWAM). Make becomes MADE, shine becomes SHONE and sit becomes SAT. Remember most of the helping verbs and being verbs also take an irregular form. Helping verbs CAN and DO become COULD and DID. Being verb AM becomes WAS. Notice how these words change spelling or pronunciation as they move from the present to the past tense? Sometimes they even change into a different word completely, like buy and BOUGHT. That’s why we call these verbs irregular past tense verbs. The irregular forms can be hard to learn, especially for early language learners, since they don’t seem to follow any rules