Study materials
It is Monday and someone asks how your weekend was. And it turns out there is nothing to say. Not because the weekend was dull, but because every verb you know is stuck in the present.
The Past Simple is what you tell stories in. You use it for last night, a trip, a series you finished, a recipe that went wrong. Anything that is already over.
I watched two episodes and cooked pasta.
One rule covers most verbs
Add ed to the verb. That is all. The form is the same for every person, so there is nothing to agree.
I worked late. She worked late. They worked late.
The time is usually named out loud, and those words are what tell your listener you have moved into the past:
We moved to Lviv three years ago.
She called me last night.
They finished the project on Friday.
Four cases where ed is spelled differently
If the verb already ends in e, add only d.
live → lived, close → closed, dance → danced
If a consonant comes before y, the y becomes i.
study → studied, try → tried, carry → carried
If a vowel comes before y, the y stays where it is.
play → played, enjoy → enjoyed, stay → stayed
In a short verb stressed on its last syllable, the final consonant doubles.
stop → stopped, plan → planned, shop → shopped
The third case and the second differ by one letter before the y. Compare: study has d before y, so studied. Play has a before y, so played.
One ending, three different sounds
You always write ed, but you say it three ways, depending on the sound the verb ends in. Nobody learns this as a list, it settles in by ear.
| Sound | When | Examples |
|---|---|---|
| /t/ | after a voiceless sound | worked, washed, helped, watched |
| /d/ | after a voiced sound or a vowel | played, cleaned, opened, lived |
| /ɪd/ | after t or d | wanted, needed, started, decided |
The third one is the one people hear. Wanted and needed carry a whole extra syllable that the spelling never shows.
Why ed disappears in questions
In negatives and questions, did carries the past tense. And once did has said the action is over, the verb does not have to say it again. It goes back to its base form.
I called Alex. → I didn't call Alex.
You watched it. → Did you watch it?
She studied law. → Did she study law?
The easiest way to hold on to this: there is only one ed per sentence. If did has taken it, the verb cannot have it too.
The mistakes everyone makes
The first is keeping ed after did, which marks the past twice.
Did you watched it? → Did you watch it?
The second is the same thing in a negative.
She didn't visited us. → She didn't visit us.
The third is forgetting the y rule.
studyed → studied
All three are caught by one question. Is there a did in the sentence? If there is, the verb stays in its base form. If there is not, it takes ed.
Try it right now
Think of three things you did yesterday and say them out loud. The dullest ones will do: worked, cooked dinner, watched something.
Then turn each one into a question with did and check that no ed is left on the verb.