The Simple past tense

I – The form of the simple past tense

There are two types of forms for the simple past tense: REGULAR and IRREGULAR :

1 – Regular form : verb + ed
Watch → watched
Listen → listened
Play → played
Cry → cried
2 – Irregular form : has no rule (this means that we change all the spelling of the verb)
Be → was/were
Do → did
Have → had
Speak → spoke

click here to see a complete list of irregular verbs.

Regular verbs
Affirmative	Negative (Didn’t = did not)	Interrogative
I watched You watched He watched She watched It watched We watched You watched They watched	I didn’t watch You didn’t watch He didn’t watch She didn’t watch It didn’t watch We didn’t watch You didn’t watch They didn’t watch	Did I watch? Did you watch? Did he watch? Did she watch? Did it watch? Did we watch? Did you watch? Did they watch?

Irregular verbs
Affirmative	Negative (Didn’t = did not)	Interrogative
I Spoke You Spoke He Spoke She Spoke It Spoke We Spoke You Spoke They Spoke	I didn’t speak You didn’t speak He didn’t speak She didn’t speak It didn’t speak We didn’t speak You didn’t speak They didn’t speak	Did I speak? Did you speak? Did he speak? Did she speak? Did I speak? Did it speak? Did we speak? Did you speak? Did they speak?

Spelling rules for the simple past tense (regular verbs)
verbs ending with – e	verbs ending with vowel + y	verbs ending with consonant+y	other forms
calculate – calculated combine – combined hope – hoped hate – hated	enjoy – enjoyed delay – delayed stay – stayed destroy – destroyed	study – studied copy – copied cry – cried try – tried	work – worked push – pushed greet – greeted ask – asked

Other spelling rules

a- verbs ending with -l, the consonant is always doubled after a single vowel.
Examples:
travel – travelled.
cancel – cancelled
quarrel – quarrelled

b – Verbs having one syllable and ending with a vowel + consonant, we double the consonant:
Examples
stop – stopped
hop – hopped
beg – begged

c – verbs with more syllables if the stress falls on the last syllable the we double the last consonant:
Examples
ad’mit – admitted
con’fer – conferred
kid’nap – kidnapped

But If the stress is not on the last syllable, we do not double the consonant:
Example:
‘enter – entered