As you can see, regular verbs add ed to
make the past tense (work / worked) and irregular verbs
change their form entirely (go / went). The most important
verb to learn first in the past tense is "be."
Be - Past Tense
Singular
Plural
I was
We were
You were
You were
He was
They were
She was
It was
I was at school yesterday.
We were in New York last week.
It was cold this morning.
Only the verb "be" changes
its form for singular or plural. All the other verbs, regular
and irregular use one form in the past tense, which makes this
tense easy to use for making statements. More practice with
this important verbs comes in Lesson 16.
Regular Verb: Learn
Subject + _____ed
Singular
Plural
I learned
We learned
You learned
You learned
He learned
They learned
She learned
It learned
Irregular Verb: Have
Subject + ________
Singular
Plural
I had
We had
You had
You had
He had
They had
She had
It had
Irregular verbs must be memorized because they change their
form completely. Click
here for a list of commonly used irregular verbs, print it
out, and commit them to memory.
Review:
The Past Tense describes the things you did yesterday,
last year, back in February, in 1973, or an hour
ago.
Regular verbs, such as learn, take an "ed" ending
after the subject.
work---worked, learn---learned, visit---visited
Irregular verbs change their form entirely or not at all.
