Regular Verb

▪ A verb following the normal pattern of inflection,

‘the general rule is that regular verbs form the past
tense by adding -ed
▪ Most verbs in English are regular.
▪ Regular verbs add -ing to the base form to make
the -ing form, and -ed to the base form to make the
past simple and past participle.
Many English verbs are regular, which means that they form their
different tenses according to an established pattern. Such verbs
work like this

3RD PERSON
SINGULAR 3RD PERSON PAST PRESENT
VERB SINGULAR
PRESENT PAST TENSE PARTICIPLE PARTICIPLE
TENSE

laugh he/she laughs he/she laughed laughed laughing

love he/she loves he/she loved loved loving

boo he/she boos he/she booed booed

booing
 Present tense formation
▪ In the present simple tense, the basic form of a regular verb only
changes in the 3rd person singular, as follows:
▪ Most verbs just add -s to the basic form (e.g. take/takes, seem/seems,
look/looks).
▪ Verbs that end with a vowel other than e add -es (e.g. go/goes,
veto/vetoes, do/does).
▪ Verbs that end with -s, -z, -ch, -sh, and -x add -es
(e.g. kiss/kisses, fizz/fizzes, punch/punches, wash/washes, mix/mixes).
▪ If the verb ends in a consonant plus -y, change the y to an i before
adding -es (e.g. hurry/hurries, clarify/clarifies).
▪ But if the verb ends in a vowel plus -y, just add -s 
(e.g. play/plays, enjoy/enjoys).
 Past tense formation
▪ Forming the past simple tense of regular verbs is mostly straightforward,
and you use the same form for the first, second, and third persons,
singular and plural:
▪ If the basic form of the verb ends in a consonant or a vowel other than e,
add the letters -ed to the end
(e.g. seem/seemed, laugh/laughed, look/looked).
▪ For verbs that end in -e, add -
d (e.g. love/loved, recede/receded, hope/hoped).
▪ If the verb ends in a consonant plus -y, change the y to an i before
adding -ed (e.g. hurry/hurried, clarify/clarified). But if the verb ends in
a vowel plus -y, just add -ed (e.g. play/played, enjoy/enjoyed).
 Forming participles
1. To form the past participle of regular verbs, follow the same rules
as for the past simple tense above.
2. To make the present participle of regular verbs:
▪If the basic form of the verb ends in a consonant or a vowel other
than e, add the ending -ing (e.g. laugh/laughing, boo/booing).
▪If the verb ends in e, drop the e before adding -ing (e.g. love/loving,
hope/hoping).
▪If the basic form ends in y just add -ing (e.g. hurry/hurrying,
clarify/clarifying).
 INFINITE PAST SIMPLE
+ -ed PAST PARTICIPLE
cook cooked
With most verbs, we cooked
finish finished
add –ed finished

+ -d
With verbs ending live lived lived
with –e, add –d close closed closed

y  -ied studied
With verbs that end carried
study studied
with one consonant, tried
+ -y, we change the carry carried
y to -ied try tried

6
P  -pped INFINITE PAST SIMPLE PAST PARTICIPLE
With verbs that end
with one vowels* + one stop stopped stopped
consonant, we double plan planned planned
the consonant

+ -ed
But note that we do
not double the
consonant, stay stayed stayed
1. When it is y or w happen happened happened
(e.g. play) open opened opened
2. When the last visit visited visited
syllable* is
unstressed (e.g.
LISten, HAppen,
Open)
Note that in
British English, l is INFINITE PAST SIMPLE PAST PARTICIPLE
usually double,
even if the cancel cancelled cancelled
syllable is travel travelled travelled
unstressed
(e.g. travel)

8
-ing forms

+ -ing INFINITE -ING FORM

With most verbs, we
add –ing Walk walking
Eat eating
.

e + -ing Make making

With verbs that end Come coming
with a consonant*, + -e,
Write writing
we delete the –e and
add –ing: