Verbs in the Past Tense

Verbs in the Past Tense (verb i preteritum)

We use the past tense when we talk about actions that have already happened: yesterday, last week, last year, in 2020 or five years ago.

LANGUAGE WORK

Regular verbs

John tried to break world records last week. Sheila worked hard to remember all the cards. They lived in Singapore in 2020. We add -ed to regular verbs in the past tense. If the word ends with -e, we only add -d. We normally don’t pronounce the -e. Practise saying these verbs in the past tense: to live – lived to work – worked to open – opened to try – tried When the last sound in a verb is /t/ or /d/, you pronounce it / d/. Say these verbs out loud: to hate – hated to add – added to protect – protected –edVurderingseksemplar TASK a Look at these sentences: I play tennis on Wednesday. I played tennis yesterday.

How does the verb change in the past tense? b Change these verbs into the past tense: help, jump, ask, want, stop, play, cry. c Hunt for verbs ending with -ed in A LEGO house on page 60–61 or Gulliver’s

Travels on page 74–77. How many did you find?

Irregular verbs

Some verbs are irregular. That means we cannot simply add -ed in the past tense. Look at these verbs. How do they change in the past tense?

to say – said to think – thought to blow – blew to break – broke

John said he had tried to break many records last week. He thought he could do it. He blew a huge bubble with gum. He broke the old record.

said thoughtblew broke Vurderingseksemplar

TASK a Look up these verbs in the list of irregular verbs on page 196–198: to buy, to drink, to find, to go, to play. Write down the past tense. Make a sentence with each of them. b Hunt for irregular verbs in the past tense in the same text you chose when you worked with regular verbs. Were there more or fewer irregular verbs than regular verbs?

Compare lists with a partner.