Simple Past Tense (Regular Verbs) | Easy English Grammar

Yesterday, my friend called, and we talked for one hour. What did you do yesterday? Hi. I'm Jennifer. In this lesson, let's practice the simple past with regular verbs like called and talked. We'll study common verbs in English that you need for everyday communication. We use the simple past to talk about finished actions or events. Yesterday, my friend called. Our conversation is finished. I'm not talking to my friend now, but I talked to her yesterday. It's all in the past. With regular verbs, we add the ending –ed. Let's practice making this form. I'll say the base verb. You say the simple past form. Good. Look at stopped. We write two P's. Why? When a verb ends with consonant-vowel-consonant and the syllable is stressed, we double that last consonant and then add –ed. It hopped. How do we spell that? H-O-P-P-E-D. Hopped. Note that the –ed ending after an unvoiced consonant, meaning a quiet consonant with no voicing, like c-s- and others, will sound like a T. Listen carefully as I say those verbs again. Listen for the T ending. Now pause the video and you practice. Read the list of verbs and say the –ed ending like a T. Let's practice another group of regular verbs. I'll say the base verb, and you say the simple past form. Enjoy. Enjoyed. Clean. Cleaned. Learn. Learned. Name. Named. Study. Studied. Look at the verb named in the simple past. Named. When a verb ends with a silent E, we just add D. Named. What's the past tense of move? Moved. And look at the verb studied in the simple past. What's the base verb? Study with a Y. When a verb ends with a Y, change the Y to an I and then add –ed. Studied. Babies cry. What did the baby do yesterday? The baby cried. Wonderful. Now note, the –ed or D ending after a vowel sound or a voiced consonant sound like L, M, N will sound like a D. D. Listen as I say the verbs again and you'll hear the D ending. Called. Listened. Played. Enjoyed. Cleaned. Learned. Named. Studied. Now pause the video and you practice. Say the verbs and make sure you say the –ed ending like a D. Let's practice one more group of regular verbs in the simple past. The past tense form of start is started, right? Listen and clap the syllables. Start. Started. After a T or D, the –ed ending adds an extra syllable. Repeat after me. Let's clap the number of syllables. Try that one again. What happens to the simple past in the negative? We use did not plus the base verb. Or, we can use the contraction, the short form. Practice the pronunciation with me. I didn't need help. Good. Let's practice. Make these verbs in the simple past negative. Use the full form and then the contraction. One. He asked a question. He did not ask a question. He didn't ask a question. Two. We listened to our teacher. We did not listen to our teacher. We didn't listen to our teacher. Three. She loved the movie. She did not love the movie. She didn't love the movie. And four. She studied for the test. She did not study for the test. She didn't study for the test. Excellent effort. I have more lessons on the simple past. You can practice with more verbs, and you can practice asking and answering questions in the simple past. I'll put links in the video description. For now, let's end with a text that we can read together. My friend called yesterday. We talked for a long time. She asked me about my new job. I didn't like my old job. I love my new job for many reasons. My friend listened to all of them. She's a good listener. I wanted to know about her life, too. My friend moved to a different city. She started a new job last year. I miss her. I enjoyed our long conversation. We ended after about an hour. I promised to call her soon. That's all for now. Practice reading that text on your own, okay? Please like, subscribe, and turn on notifications. Thanks for watching and happy studies!