Your scoreSimple Past Tense : Exercise 1

Change the base form of the action verb

Form Base form Simple past tense form

Verb + d dance danced
( ends with “e” ) type typed
Verb + ed look looked
laugh laughed
walk walked
watch watched
Verb + ied study studied
carry carried
Verb + last consonant + ed drop dropped
tap tapped
Irregular Verbs eat ate

change spelling buy bought
see saw
do did
catch caught
Special verbs put put

no change in spelling cut cut
read read

Give the past tense of the verbs below.

Regular verbs Past tense Regular verbs Past tense

Eg cook cooked
1 ask ............................ 11 help .......................
2 lock ............................ 12 touch .......................
3 call ............................. 13 listen .......................
4 talk ............................. 14 search .........................
5 need ............................ 15. push .........................
6 start ............................ 16 attend .........................
7 punish ............................. 17 walk ..........................
8 present ............................. 18 work ..........................
9 contain ............................. 19 wait ..........................
10 play ............................. 20 want ..........................

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Exercise 2
Irregular verbs Past tense Regular verbs Past tense
Eg buy bought read read
1 break .............................31 cut ...........................
2 bring .............................32 put ...........................
3 drink .............................33 hit ..........................
4 eat ............................34 let ..........................
5 fall .............................35 set ..........................
6 feel .............................
7 fly ............................. send sent
8 find .............................36 spend ..............................
9 fight .............................37 lend ..............................
10 give .............................38 bend ..............................
11 go .............................
12 get .............................. share shared
13 hide .............................39 smile .............................
14 hold .............................40 live ..............................
15 hear ............................41 receive ...............................
16 keep ..............................42 cause ..............................
17 leave ............................43 move ..............................
18 meet .............................44 like ..............................
19 sleep .............................45 whistle ................................
20 swim .............................46 prepare ..............................
21 sing .............................47 use .............................
22 stand .............................48 arrive .............................
23 speak .............................49 cause ...............................
24 take .............................
25 tell ............................. dry dried
26 tear .............................50 try .................................
27 see ..............................51 marry .............................
28 win ...............................52 carry ..............................
29 write ...............................53 cry .............................
30 catch ..............................

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Exercise 3
Put the verbs in brackets into the Simple Past tense.

Eg: She (study) hard and therefore (do) well in her examination.
She studied hard and therefore did well in her examination.

1. He (have) no idea who (do) it.

.....................................................................................................................................................................
2. The old man (trip) over a stone and (fall) on the road.
.....................................................................................................................................................................
3. I (walk) up the garden path to the front door. Nobody (seem) to be at home but I (ring) the bell anyway.
......................................................................................................................................................................
4. The rain (start) to fall just as we (walk) out of the house.
.....................................................................................................................................................................
5. Raja (talk) more than the rest of the boys but he (be) not punished.
.....................................................................................................................................................................
6. She (dive) into the river and (swim) quickly until she (reach) the finishing line.
.....................................................................................................................................................................
7. I suddenly (realize) that the stranger (be) my uncle.
.....................................................................................................................................................................
8. The fire engine (arrive) but it (can) not do much.
.....................................................................................................................................................................
9. The police (try) to catch the thief but (fail).
.....................................................................................................................................................................
10. They (work) since this morning.
.....................................................................................................................................................................
11. She (shop) the whole day but (do) not buy anything.
.....................................................................................................................................................................
12. He (tell) me that he (want) to make his parents proud by doing well in the examination.
......................................................................................................................................................................
13. Everyone (admire) my new gown when I (wear) it at a dinner last night.
......................................................................................................................................................................
14. The students (listen) attentively when the teacher (tell) them a story.
......................................................................................................................................................................
15. Farah (decide) to join us on the trip to Penang.
.....................................................................................................................................................................

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Simple Past Tense : Exercise 4

Talk about an action that happened in the past

Word clue : yesterday/ last week/ just now/ last night/ a few minutes ago/ .....
* Word clue may not necessarily be in the sentence. Any indication of an action taking place in the past is good enough
to show you that the verb(s) in the sentence(s) must be in the past tense .

Eg: My teacher advised me yesterday.

( verb) (word clue)

Fill in the blanks with the Simple Past tense form of the verb given in the brackets.

Last week, I (1)............................... (have) dinner with two friends of mine whom I have not met for many

years. The food (2)............................. (be) simply delicious. We (3)............................ (exclaim) with delight

whenever we (4).............................. (taste) a dish. Every dish (5) ....................... (suit) our palate. The food probably

tasted good because we (6)................................ (enjoy) each other’s company.

Our conversation (7)............................. (be) on all things mundane and unimportant. Insignificant episodes

that we (8)............................ (narrate) and (9).......................... (share) about our past constantly

(10)................................. (cause) us to roar with laughter. We (11)............................ (not, care) what fellow diners

(12)................................. (think) about our loud behaviour. We (13)................................. (be) oblivious to everyone

else except ourselves. Dinner (14).............................. (end) after 9 p.m and we (15)......................... (leave) after we

had our coffee. We even (16)............................. (promise) to keep in touch. We, then

(17).............................. (exchange) our electronic mail addresses. We (18)........................... (feel) very happy and (19)

................................. (hope) to be able to see each other again in the future. That (20)......................... (be) the best

time we had in a long time.

On the following morning, I (21)................................ (be) shocked to read about their disappearance in the

newspaper. Throughout the night, they never(22)................................. (give) me any inkling that they

(23).............................. (be) in trouble with loan sharks and creditors and I (24)........................... (not, suspect) they

had any problems. They (25)................................ (seem) extremely happy to meet up with me. I did not have a

single clue that they were in deep financial trouble.

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