Verb Forms and Verb Tenses (#8):

Spelling Regular Past Forms

English verbs have five basic forms: the base form, the - S form,the - ing form, the past form, and the past participle form.
There are two types of past forms--for regular and irregular verbs.
The past form of regular verbs ends in - d, - ed, or - ied. Here are some guidelines for spelling.
1. Add -d to the base form.
This happens when the base form ends in a vowel and one or more consonants plus e:
ached, baked, blamed, breathed, cared, cached,chased. diced, dozed, dyed, edged, fiddled, filed, glared, grated, hated,
hoped, joked, lived,mired, noted, paced, pasted, raced, raised,sliced, spared, surprised, tasted, typed, whined.
This also happens when the base form ends in ue,oe, or ie:
glued, rued, sued, hoed, toed, died, lied, tied
2. Change -y to -i and add -ed.
This happens when a verb ends in a consonantand y:
apply / applied; bully / bullied; bury / buried; carry / carried; copy / copied; cry / cried;
dry / dried; ferry / ferried; fry / fried; hurry / hurried; marry / married; parry / parried; pry / pried; query / queried; rely /
relied; tarry / tarried; tidy / tidied;try / tried; vary / varied; worry / worried
This does not happen when a verb ends in a vowel and y:
annoy / annoyed; bray / brayed; destroy / destroyed;employ / employed; enjoy / enjoyed;
fray / frayed; gray / grayed; obey / obeyed;play / played; pray / prayed; prey / preyed;
stay / stayed; stray / strayed; sway / swayed; toy / toyed
Compare fray / frayed with fry / fried;
pray / prayed , prey / preyed and parry / parried
with pry / pried.
3. Double the final consonant and add -edif there is a single stressed vowel before
the final consonant.
ban / banned; can / canned; hem / hemmed; mop / mopped; pin / pinned; sip / sipped;
trap / trapped; wad / wadded; whip / whipped; compl / complled; confr / confrred;
prefr / prefrred; refr / refrred
Note:
Compare cane / caned and can / canned;
mope / moped and mop / mopped;
pine / pined and pin / pinned;
wade / waded and wad / wadded.
Also compare ffer / ffered and confr / confrred;
trvel / trveled and compl / complled.
4. Add -ed to the base forms of all other
regular verbs.

Irregular Past Forms

The past forms of irregular verbs are challenging because thereare no easy rules for forming them. Some are the same as
the baseform, some change their vowels and/or endings, and a few are
completely different from the base forms.
Here is a list of more than 140 common irregular verbs:

A
1.
2.

1. fall / fell
arise / arose
2. feed / fed
awake / awoke
3. fight / fought
4. find / found
B
5. flee / fled
be / was, were
bear / bore 6. fly / flew
beat / beat 7. forbid / forbade, forbad
8. forget / forgot
become / became
begin / began9. forgive / forgave
bend / bent 10.
forsake / forsook
bet / bet
11.
freeze / froze

1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8. bid / bade, bid*
9. bind / bound
10. bite / bit
G
11. bleed / bled
1.
get / got
12. blow / blew
13. break / broke2. give / gave
14. breed / bred 3. go / went
4. grind / ground
15. bring / brought
16. build / built 5. grow / grew
17. burn / burned, burnt*
18. burst / burst H
19. buy / bought 1. hang / hanged, hung*

2.
3.
cast / cast 4.
catch / caught
5.
choose / chose
come / came 6.
cost / cost 7.

1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6. creep / crept
7. cut / cut

have / had
hear / heard
hide / hid
hit / hit
hold / held
hurt / hurt

1.
2.
1. deal / dealt 3.
2. dig / dug
4.

keep / kept
kneel / knelt
knit / knitted, knit*
know / knew
3. dive / dived, dove*
4. do / did
L
5. draw / drew
1. lay / laid
6. dream /
7. drink / drank 2. lead / led
8. drive / drove 3. lean / leaned, leant*
9. dwell / dwelt 4. leap / leapt, leaped*
5. learn / learned, learnt*
10. dream/dreamed,dreamt*
6. leave / left
7. lend / lent
8. let / let
E
9. lie / lay
1. eat / ate
10.
light / lighted, lit*
11.
lose / lost

1. steal / stole
2. stick / stuck
3. sting / stung
4. stink / stank
5. stride / strode
6. strive / strove
7. swear / swore
8. sweep / swept
9. swim / swam
10. swing / swung

1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.

take / took
teach / taught
tear / tore
tell / told
think / thought
throw / threw
tread / trod

make / made
mean / meant
meet / met
mistake / mistook

P
1. partake / partook
2. pay / paid
3. put / put
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.

read / read*
rend / rent
rid / rid
ride / rode
rise / rose
run / ran

U
1. understand / understood
2. upset / upset

W
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.

1.
2.
3.
4.

wake / woke
wear / wore
weave / wove
weep / wept
win / won
wind / wound
wring / wrung
write / wrote

11.
12.
13.
14.
15.
16.
17.
18.
19.
20.
21.
22.
23.
24.
25.
26.
27.
28.
29.
30.
31.
32.
33.
34.
35.
36.
37.

say / said
see / saw
seek / sought
sell / sold
send / sent
set / set
shake / shook
shed / shed
shine / shone
shoot / shot
shrink / shrank
shut / shut
sing / sang
sink / sank
sit / sat
slay / slew
sleep / slept
slide / slid
sling / slung
slit / slit
speak / spoke
speed / sped, speeded*
spin / spun
spit / spat
split / split
spring / sprang
stand / stood