Forming Simple Past Tense Verbs

How to Teach the Past Tense
to ESL/EFL Learners

Forming Simple Past tense verbs is actually quite easy for regular English verbs. However, as with teaching all verb tenses, conjugation is only the beginning of the lesson.

There is essentially only one rule to follow to conjugate a regular past tense verb. Irregular Simple Past tense verbs are a bit trickier. There is no one general rule for irregulars and the student learning English as a second language or a foreign language must simply memorize irregular verbs.

As with all verb tenses, three things are essential to teach students learning English:

(1) Verb conjugation,

(2) Verb form, and

(3) Verb function.

See ESL Verb Tenses for a thorough discussion on teaching verbs to adults learning ESL or EFL.

Simple Past Verb Conjugation (using miscellaneous common verbs, for example)

Forming Simple Past tense verbs in the affirmative is pretty easy. There is only one form of the verb no matter what the subject is. Regular Simple Past tense verbs are formed by adding "-ed" to the end of the base form of the verb (e.g., walked, dressed, called, enjoyed, etc.). For verbs that already end with an "e," just add a "d" (e.g., cared, raced, decided, invited, etc.).

Here are some examples of conjugated Past Tense verbs:

1. I talked. I walked. I danced. I cared.

2. You talked. You walked. You danced. You cared.

3. She/He/It talked. She/He/It walked. She/He/It danced. She/He/It cared.

4. They talked. They walked. They danced. They cared.

5. We talked. We walked. We danced. We cared.

1. Affirmative Usage (e.g., She talked.)

2. Negative Usage (e.g., She didn’t talk.)

3. Yes/No Questions (e.g., Did she talk?)

4. Short Answers (e.g., Yes, she did. No, she didn’t.)

5. WH- Questions (e.g., When did she talk?)

The tricky thing for ESL students conjugating the Simple Past is remembering to use the correct "helping" or "auxiliary" verb "to do" when conjugating Simple Past tense verbs in the negative and when forming questions (yes/no questions and wh- questions).

Simple Past Function (when to use this tense)

The Simple Past verb tense has one primary function: to express an activity or situation that started in the past and ended in the past at a particular time. Here are some examples:

I finished my homework last night.

I traveled to Spain in 1985.

I got up at seven this morning.

ESL Student Challenges

Besides remembering to use the correct helping verb ("to do"), students studying English as a second language also have to memorize irregular Past Tense verbs (irregulars don't follow the general rule of adding "-ed") and they also have to learn about changing the spelling of verbs that end with "y" (e.g., "study" becomes "studied") and some consonants (e.g., "drop" becomes "dropped").

For a more thorough explanation of forming Simple Past tense verbs, including irregular verbs and spelling issues, as well as Simple Past exercises, see Azar's, Understanding and Using English Grammar, but note that this ESL textbook is appropriate for higher intermediate and advanced ESL or EFL students (and their teachers!). I use it regularly.

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