2. Let’s Study | A blast from the past – part B
To talk about the past, we have to put verbs in the past tense. For the regular ones, just add -ed at the end of the verb. E.g.: “People listened to music on the radio” / “Kids played video games at the Arcade.”
Very simple, right? There are some spelling rules, though:
If a verb ends in -e, only add -d.
Dance – Danced
Like – Liked
If a verb ends in consonant, vowel and a consonant, double the last letter before -ed.
Stop – Stopped
Plan – Planned
If a verb ends in consonant and -y, you take off the -y and add -ied.
Try – Tried
Carry – Carried
But if the word ends in a vowel and -y, only add -ed.
Play – Played
Enjoy – Enjoyed
Some verbs are irregular, which means they don’t follow a rule, so you must learn their past forms. Here’s a list of some of the most common ones. E.g.: “Kids went to the library to research.” / “Computers became more common.” / “Students did homework without Google.”
Use “did” as an auxiliar for negative sentences and questions. E.g.: “The internet didn’t exist.” / “Kids didn’t have their own phones.”
Notice that when the auxiliar “did” appears, the verb is on its base form.
Use the expression “used to” to talk about thing that happened in the past, but don’t anymore. E.g.: “people used to record songs from the radio. ” / “The streets used to be safer.” / “People didn’t use to wear jeans to work.” / “Did you use to play on the street?” / “Did you use to like board games?” / “What cartoons did you use to watch?”
Now let’s play a few games to check understanding. You can access them by clicking on the links below.