Use Verbs in the Past Tense
1 TRY OUT LANGUAGE
2 LEARN GRAMMAR
3 APPLY ON YOUR OWN
A past tense verb shows an action that already happened. For most verbs, add -ed to show past tense.
| EXAMPLE | The mayor talked about our community. (regular verb) |
Use special past tense forms with irregular verbs.
| EXAMPLE | He gave his speech yesterday. (irregular verb) |
Each past tense form of an irregular verb must be memorized.
| Present | Past | Example in the Past |
|---|---|---|
| give | gave | I gave a letter to the mayor. |
| get | got | I got to see the mayor. |
| speak | spoke | The mayor spoke to us about improving our town. |
| see | saw | We saw photos of places in our community. |
| feel | felt | Everyone felt eager to help. |
| know | knew | The mayor knew my name! |
| tell | told | I told the mayor about some of my ideas. |
| think | thought | He thought my ideas were great. |
Practice Together
Say each sentence with your class. Then say the sentence again, using the past tense form of the underlined verb.
1. The students see litter all over the park.
2. They know the problem.
3. They think about what they could do to clean up the area.
4. They get large trash bags.
These students helped their community.
Try It!
Say each sentence. Write the verb on a card. Then write the past tense form of the verb on the same card. Say the sentence again using the past tense form of the verb.
5. The teacher gives everyone gloves to wear.
6. She tells the students what to do.
7. She speaks to each group about their jobs.
8. Everyone feels good about helping the community.