Notes

Outline

The Simple Past Tense At the end of this lesson you should be able to tell the things you did yesterday.

What is the Simple Past Tense? The simple past tense is used to talk about a specific action that happened in the past.

The simple past tense has a few simple rules. A simple past tense verb will have one of three endings:  -d, -ed, or –ied.  All past tense verbs except for the past of “to be” will be used for all persons.

Verbs ending in E If a verb ends with an “e” we will add “d” to the word. Example = Taste becomes Tasted Smile becomes Smiled

Verbs ending with Y and has a consonant. If a verb ends with a “y” and has a consonant before it we will remove the “y” and add ied”   Example = Cry becomes Cried   Reply becomes Replied

Verbs ending with Y and has a vowel before it. If a verb ends with a “y” but has a vowel before it, we will add –ed to the y. Example = Play becomes Played Spray becomes Sprayed

Verbs ending with any other letter If a verb ends with any other letters then add –ed. Example = Climb becomes Climbed Argue becomes Argued

Verbs ending with a consonant+vowel+consonant If a verb ends with a consonant + vowel + consonant we must double the last consonant unless it has more than one syllable and the first syllable is stressed.  (Never double x, w, or y)

Examples  Example = Strap becomes Strapped Trap becomes Trapped Tan becomes Tanned Refer becomes Referred Enter becomes Entered (first syllable is stressed)

End of Presentation