Verbs and Tenses - Part 2 (The Present Perfect Tense, The Simple Past Tense, Regular and Irregular Verbs)

The Present Perfect Tense 

Use the present perfect tense to talk about happenings in the past that explain ar affect the present. The verbs have and has are used as "helping" or auxiliary verbs to form the present perfect tense.

Retrieved from: Basic English Grammar - Book 1

To form the present perfect tense join have or has to the past participle of the verb:

• have + past participle
• has   + past participle

The past participle of a regular verb usually ends in -ed, just like the simple past tense. But the past participles of irregular verbs don't follow this rule.

Exercise 1 

Write the past participle of these verbs on the blanks.

1. break ...
2. drink ...
3. cut  ...
4. do  ...
5. sing ...
6. buy ...
7. find ...
8. draw ...
9. hear ...
10. know ... 

Exercise 2 

Fill in the blanks with the present perfect tense of the verbs in parentheses.

Retrieved from: Basic English Grammar - Book 1

The Simple Past Tense 

Use the simple past tense to talk about things that happened in the past. The simple past tense is also used to talk about things that happened in stories.

Retrieved from: Basic English Grammar - Book 1

• I bought a new camera last week.
• Joe learned to play the guitar very quickly.
• We drove to the safari park last weekend.
• The giant panda gave birth to a cub last night.
• Yesterday Dad took me to the carnival.
• The plane landed a few minutes ago.
• The children visited a farm during the holidays.
• Who invented the computer?
• Jack and Jill went up the hill.
• Little Red Riding Hood decided to visit her grandmother.
• The Three Bears found Goldilocks asleep in their house.

Regular and Irregular Verbs

The simple past tense of most verbs ends in -ed. These verbs are called regular verbs.

Retrieved from: Basic English Grammar - Book 1

• Mom opened the door for us.
• Sally petted the dog.
• That event happened long ago.
• We visited our uncle last week.
• They walked to school together yesterday.
• They worked until twelve last night.
• Dad tried to fix the light.
• William Tell aimed at the apple on his son's head.

* The simple past tense is usually formed by adding -ed to the verb. For example:

Retrieved from: Basic English Grammar - Book 1

* If the verb ends with -e, just add-d. For example:

Retrieved from: Basic English Grammar - Book 1

* Remember these spelling rules: 

You must double the last letter of some verbs before adding -ed. For example:

Retrieved from: Basic English Grammar - Book 1

* Notice that the verbs above are all short verbs of just one syllable. they all end with a consonant such as b, d, m, n, p, t, and have only a single vowel before the consonant.

* With verbs that end in -y, change the y to i before adding -ed. For example:

Retrieved from: Basic English Grammar - Book 1

The simple past form of some verbs does not end in -ed. Such verbs are called irregular verbs.

The simple past tense of some irregular verbs does not change at all.

Retrieved from: Basic English Grammar - Book 1

Most irregular verbs, however, take a different form in the simple past tense.

Retrieved from: Basic English Grammar - Book 1

Exercise 1

Write the simple past tense of these verbs on the blanks.

Retrieved from: Basic English Grammar - Book 1

Exercise 2

Fill in the blanks with the correct simple past tense of the verbs in parentheses.

Retrieved from: Basic English Grammar - Book 1