1. NORTHEAST SCHOOL OF
AGRICULTURE
THIRD FOURT MONTH
PRACTICE ENGLISH III
ENGINEER OSCAR GARCIA
GROUP PRACTICE #3
MEMBERS:
GOMEZ LOYO, ALEXIS JOSUE
2. rules
How to form the Past Tense in English
The main rule is that for every verb in English, there is only one form of it in the
past tense.
(The exception is the Past tense of To Be, which has two forms: was and were)
This is totally different from other languages such as Spanish, French, Italian etc.
where you change the verb ending for every subject.
For example: The past tense of the verb want is wanted.
Wanted is used as the past tense for all subjects/pronouns.
•I wanted
•You wanted
•He wanted
•She wanted
•It wanted
•We wanted
•They wanted
So you just have to learn one word to be able to use it in the past tense. In this
case we just needed to learn the one word wanted which can be used for all
subjects (or people).
3. Past Tense Regular Verbs
To change a regular verb into its past tense form, we normally add –ED to the
end of the verb.
•play – played
•cook – cooked
•rain – rained
•wait – waited
There are some exceptions with a slight change in spelling which you can see
here:
4. EXAMPLES
Regular Verbs
All regular verbs have similar endings: - ed, - d , or -
ied.
These endings are added to the base form.
Examples:
brush / brushed
cook / cooked
discuss / discussed
fix / fixed
jump / jumped
look / looked
mail / mailed
need / needed
open / opened
pitch / pitched
risk / risked
smell / smelled
trust / trusted
view / viewed
wink / winked
bake / baked
care / cared
dine / dined
file / filed
giggle / giggled
hope / hoped
like / liked
paste / pasted
stare / stared
smile / smiled
type / typed
use / used
whine / whined
bully / bullied
bury / buried
cry / cried
dally / dallied
dry / dried
ferry / ferried
fry / fried
marry / married
party / partied
pry / pried
query / queried
tally / tallied
tarry / tarried
try / tried
worry / worried
5. Irregular Verbs
The irregular verbs do not make the past form by adding- ed,
- d , or - ied. Some have the same base and past form, some
change vowel sounds, and a few have completely different base
and past forms.
Examples (there are many more in each category):
beat / beat
cost / cost
cut / cut
hit / hit
hurt / hurt
let / let
quit / quit
set / set
shed / shed
slit / slit
arise / arose
break / broke
buy / bought
come / came
draw / drew
fall / fell
find / found
get / got
hide / hid
meet / met
run / ran
see / saw
take / took
write / wrote
be / was, were
do / did
go / went
have / had
6. EXERCISES
•I have seen that movie twenty times.
•I think I have met him once before.
•There have been many earthquakes in California.
•People have traveled to the Moon.
•People have not traveled to Mars.
•Have you read the book yet?
•Nobody has ever climbed that mountain.
•A: Has there ever been a war in the United States?
B: Yes, there has been a war in the United States.
•Man has walked on the Moon.
•Our son has learned how to read.
•Doctors have cured many deadly diseases.
•Scientists have split the atom.
•James has not finished his homework yet.
•Susan hasn't mastered Japanese, but she can communicate.
•Bill has still not arrived.
•The rain hasn't stopped.
