Simple Past Tense

Spelling Rules of Regular Verbs

Rule 1: Most regular verbs take –ed in the simple past and past participle.
cook  cooked ask asked
________ marked
mark ________ touched
touch ________
listen  listened belonged
belong ________ needed
need ________ viewed
view ________
paint  painted dial dialed
________ pull pulled
________ wash ________
washed
play  played guessed
guess ________ reach ________
reached yawned
yawn ________
looked
visit  visitedlook ________ started
start ________ yell yelled
________

Rule 2: Add –d to the verbs ending in e (silent e)

arrive  arrived baked
bake ________ hate hated
________ smile smiled
________
confuse  confused cared
care ________ like liked
________ type typed
________
dance  danced eased
ease ________ pile piled
________ die died
________
hope  hoped file filed
________ race raced
________ close closed
________
smoke  smoked greased
grease ________ save saved
________ phone phoned
________

Rule 3: If the verb ends in a consonant + y, change the y to i and then add –ed.
apply  applied buried
bury ________ spy spied
________ bullied
bully ________
carry  carried cry cried
________ varied
vary ________ dry ________
dried
hurry  hurried fry fried
________ worried
worry ________ ferried
ferry ________
study  studied married
marry ________ copied
copy ________ queried
query ________
try  tried pry pried
________ rely relied
________ tidy tidied
________

Rule 4: When the last three letters of a verb are consonant + vowel + consonant
(CVC, a vowel sandwich), double the last consonant in one-syllable verbs. Don't double if the verb
finishes with an "x" or "w" e.g. fix  fixed mix  mixed bow  bowed endow  endowed
hop  hopped beg begged
________ pin pinned
________ zip zipped
________
hug  hugged clapped
clap ________ rip ripped
________ ban banned
________
plan  planned fan fanned
________ slammed
slam ________ swapped
swap ________
rob  robbed jog jogged
________ tan tanned
________ rub ________
rubbed
stop  stopped chopped
chop ________ whip ________
whipped tap tapped
________
dub  dubbed bin binned
________ slip slipped
________ knit knitted
________

Rule 5: When the last three letters of a verb are consonant + vowel + consonant (CVC, a vowel
sandwich), double the last consonant in two-syllable verbs if the final syllable is stressed.
permit  permitted referred
refer ________ reshipped
reship ________ commit committed
________
prefer  preferred occurred
occur ________ controlled
control ________ deter deterred
________
program  programmed emitted
emit ________ parellelled
parallel________ *kidnap kidnapped
________
regret  regretted deferred
defer ________ excelled
excel ________ *handicap handicapped
________
transfer  transferred compelled
compel________ admitted
admit ________ (*exceptions)

If the vowel sandwich is not stressed, we do not double the final consonant:
benefit  benefited
visit  visited
listen  listened
develop  developed
remember  remembered
*travel  traveled
*In British English we double the last I even though the last vowel is not stressed. Here are some
examples:
*travel – travelled level – levelled marvel – marvelled
cancel – cancelled label –labelled
Special Exceptions: picnic, panic, traffic all add K before the suffix to keep the hard K sound in
front of the vowel which begins the suffix; picnicked, panicked, trafficked, trafficker, trafficking.