grammarGRAMMAR


Spelling of the -ed forms


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The spelling of the simple past form (-ed forms)

You will learn the spelling of the simple past form (-ed form.) But before you continue the lesson study the following examples and try to see how the verbs are spelled.

Verbs ending in a...
1. silent e 2. vowel + y 3. consonant + y 4. other forms
close = closed
die = died
phone = phoned

play = played
destroy = destroyed
show = showed

marry = married
carry = carried
study = studied
visit = visited
miss = missed
watch = watched
finish = finished
fix = fixed
buzz = buzzed

The rules of the simple past tense forms:

Here are the rules:

  1. Regular verbs ending in a silent e take /-d/ in the simple past and past participle:
    Example:
    close=closed
  2. Regular verbs ending in a vowel + y take /-ed/ in the simple past and past participle:
    Example:
    play=played
  3. Regular verbs ending in a consonant + y take /-ied/ in the simple past and past participle (the ' y' becomes an ' i' followed by /-ed/)
    Example:
    marry=married
  4. All the other regular verbs take /-ed/ in the simple past and past participle.
    Example:
    visit=visited

Special cases of the -ed forms:

Follow these rules when there is a consonant after a vowel (stop, ban, open, offer...)

  • If there is a consonant after a stressed vowel at the end of the word, double the consonant
    stop – stopped
    ban - banned
    swap - swapped
  • If the vowel is not stressed, we do not double it:
    open - opened (Here the stress is on'o', not the 'e'.)
    offer - offered ( Here the stress is on 'o', not the 'e'.)

In British English we double the last 'l' of words like travel, cancel and level even though the last vowel is not stressed. Here are some examples:

  • travel - travelled
  • cancel - cancelled
  • level - levelled
  • marvel - marvelled

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