ORIENTATION WEEK GRAMMAR LESSON A: Past Tense Review

Past Tense Verbs

When you tell a story, you usually tell about it happening in the past, some time before now.
Past tense verb forms will help you tell your story correctly.

In other words, verbs tell what somebody or something DOES.

 I play.
 She works.
 We speak.
 They are nice.
 He lives in a small house.
 You know me. 


English has two kinds of verbs.

 Regular verbs (play, work, live)

 Irregular verbs (speak, be, know)


The only difference between these kinds of verbs is in their past tense forms.

This is a program of the University of Oregon, College of Arts and Sciences, American English Institute.
Copyright 2016 University of Oregon. All rights reserved.
Orientation Week Grammar Lesson A: Past Tense Review
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We mentioned that sometimes you have to change the spelling when you add “-ed.” The most
common spelling changes happen when the base form of the verb ends with “e” or “y,” or when
the base form ends with a stressed vowel and then a consonant. 


 When the verb already ends with “e,” just add “d.” For example:
o change → changed
o hope → hoped

 When the verb ends with “y” after a consonant, change the “y” to an “i” before adding
“-ed.” For example:
o hurry → hurried
o try → tried

This doesn’t happen if there is another vowel before the “y.”

 annoy → annoyed


When the verb ends with a stressed vowel and then a consonant, double that last consonant,
and then add “-ed.”

 stop → stopped
 prefer → preferred

Note that you don’t double the consonant if the vowel is unstressed.

 open → opened

Except in British English, you still double the consonant if it’s an “l.”

 travel → travelled (British) or traveled (American)

Now, let’s return to irregular verbs. They are a little more complicated since many of them have
two different past tense forms. Let’s look at the irregular verb “choose.”

 I need to choose a new class today.

 I chose three classes in September.
 I had originally chosen different classes, but I changed my mind.

Base form Past simple form Past participle

choose chose chosen

Here are some more examples:

 I want to give you a present.

 She gave me these earrings last year.
 I have never given someone such a nice gift.

Base form Past simple form Past participle

give gave given

This is a program of the University of Oregon, College of Arts and Sciences, American English Institute.
Copyright 2016 University of Oregon. All rights reserved.
Orientation Week Grammar Lesson A: Past Tense Review
Page 2 of 4
  I like to speak with my mother.
 I spoke to my teacher after class yesterday.
 I should have spoken to her sooner.

Base form Past simple form Past participle

speak spoke spoken

For some irregular verbs, the past simple form and the past participle are the same.

 I can catch a baseball.

 I caught the ball when she threw it.
 I have caught thousands of balls while practicing baseball.

Base form Past simple form Past participle

catch caught caught

As we said before, you just have to memorize the irregular past tense forms.

Here is a list with 50 of the most common irregular verbs. How many do you already know?

50 Irregular Verbs: Base form, Past simple, Past participle

1. become, became, become
2. begin, began, begun
3. blow, blew, blown
4. break, broke, broken
5. bring, brought, brought
6. buy, bought, bought
7. choose, chose, chosen
8. come, came, come
9. do, did, done
10. draw, drew, drawn
11. drink, drank, drunk
12. drive, drove, driven
13. eat, ate, eaten
14. fall, fell, fallen
15. feel, felt, felt
16. fight, fought, fought
17. find, found, found
18. fly, flew, flown
19. forget, forgot, forgotten
20. get, got, gotten
21. give, gave, given
22. go, went, gone
23. have, had, had
24. hear, heard, heard
25. keep, kept, kept
26. know, knew, known
27. leave, left, left
28. lose, lost, lost

This is a program of the University of Oregon, College of Arts and Sciences, American English Institute.
Copyright 2016 University of Oregon. All rights reserved.
Orientation Week Grammar Lesson A: Past Tense Review
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 29. make, made, made
30. mean, meant, meant
31. meet, met, met
32. pay, paid, paid
33. put, put, put
34. quit, quit, quit
35. read, read, read
36. ride, rode, ridden
37. rise, rose, risen
38. run, ran, run
39. say, said, said
40. see, saw, seen
41. sell, sold, sold
42. send, sent, sent
43. speak, spoke, spoken
44. swim, swam, swum
45. take, took, taken
46. teach, taught, taught
47. tell, told, told
48. think, thought, thought
49. understand, understood, understood
50. write, wrote, written

You can easily find longer lists online. There are a little more than 200 irregular verbs that are
regularly used, and another 200 that are rare. Regularly study the common irregular verbs.
Someday you will know them all.

NOTE: This is a lesson from the “Tell Your Story in English: Reading and Writing Skills for
English Language Learners” MOOC developed and offered by the University of Oregon.
Additional practice activities for these lessons and information about this MOOC can be found
on Canvas Network: https://learn.canvas.net/courses/

This is a program of the University of Oregon, College of Arts and Sciences, American English Institute.
Copyright 2016 University of Oregon. All rights reserved.
Orientation Week Grammar Lesson A: Past Tense Review
Page 4 of 4