English Grammar: Past Simple Tense Regular and Irregular Verbs – 2nd Year Secondary – Algeria

Past Simple Tense: Regular and Irregular Verbs

The Past Simple tense is used to describe completed actions or events that happened at a specific time in the past.

Formation: Affirmative

Regular verbs: Base verb + -ed (work → worked, play → played).
Spelling rules:
– Verbs ending in -e: add -d (like → liked).
– Verbs ending in consonant + y: change y to i and add -ed (study → studied).
– Verbs ending in CVC: double last consonant (stop → stopped).

Irregular verbs: No fixed rule. Examples: go → went, eat → ate, see → saw, buy → bought, drink → drank.

Negative and Interrogative

Negative: Subject + did not (didn’t) + base verb.
Ex: I did not (didn’t) go to school yesterday.

Interrogative: Did + Subject + base verb?
Ex: Did you see the movie last night?

Uses

• Completed actions in the past: I visited Paris last year.
• Sequences of past actions: She woke up, brushed her teeth, and had breakfast.
• Past habits: When I was young, I played football every day.
• Past states: I lived in London for 5 years.

Time Expressions

yesterday, last night/week/month/year, ago (2 days ago), in 2020, when I was a child.

Exercises

1. Put the verbs in Past Simple: “They (visit) ___ the museum yesterday. She (buy) ___ a new dress last week.”
2. Make negative: “He went to the party.” → “He ___ ___ to the party.”
3. Ask questions: “She studied English.” → “___ she ___ English?”

For more English lessons, check Present Simple Tense and Present Continuous Tense.