Regular Verbs and Irregular Verbs

We usually make the past tense form by adding ‘-ed’ to the bare infinitive. These are regular verbs, which make up 95% of all verbs.

For example, work becomes worked and look becomes looked, and want becomes wanted.

If the verb ends in e, you don’t need to add another, so just add a d on the end.

For example, use becomes used, dance becomes danced, and agree becomes agreed.

If the regular verb ends in y, we turn the y into an i and add ed.

For example, cry becomes cried and fry becomes fried.

If a one-syllable verb ends in consonant–vowel–consonant, we double the last consonant.

For example, stop becomes stopped, plan becomes planned, and drum becomes drummed.

However, if the verb ends in w, x, or y, we don’t double the consonant.

For example, snow becomes snowed, fix becomes fixed, and stay becomes stayed.

There are special Regular Verbs that don’t follow any of the above rules for the Past Simple Tense.

Some regular verbs use a t on the end, and some can be spelled with a t or an ed on the end.

For example, dream becomes dreamt, burn become burnt, and learn becomes learnt.

To make things a little more confusing, some of these verbs can be spelled/spelt both ways in the past tense. For example, we can use burnt or burned, learnt or learned.

Irregular Verbs in the past tense are completely different. These can change completely, or not even change at all, it just depends.

For example go becomes went, and eat becomes ate. However, put doesn’t change, for past tense we use put as well. Same as cut, it stays as cut in the past tense, too.

For irregular verbs you have to memorize them, because it’s the only way to get them right. These are the most commonly used Irregular Verbs.