Mini Lesson: Past Tense Review

By Janice Seagraves

I figured it wouldn’t hurt to do some tenses review. Why do we need past tense? Because most books are written in past tense.

Anything with an –ed at the end is past tense, like Stopped is past tense of stop.

However, there are other words to look out for, that don’t follow that rule.

Led is past tense of lead.

Gone is past tense of go or going.

Sung is past tense of sing.

Hidden is the past tense of hide.

Caught is the past tense of catch

Bought is the past tense of buy

Came is the past tense of come

Crept is the past tense of creep

Dealt is the past tense of deal.

Fed is past tense of feed

Felt is the past tense of feel

Fitted is past tense of fit

Hung is past tense of Hang

Had is past tense of has

Had is also the past tense of Have

Heard is the past tense of hear

Found is past tense of Find

Held is past tense of Hold

Kept is past tense of Keep

Laid is past tense of lay

Lost is past tense of lose

Make is past tense of made

Mean is past tense of meant

Meet is past tense of met

There’s more of course, but I don’t want to overwhelm you.

Here are some more tenses to watch out for:

be   was   been

Bear   bore   born

Become   became    become

Bite   bit   bitten

Bend   bent   bent

Bleed   bled   bled

Burn   burned   burnt

Choose   chose   chosen

Dive   dove   dived

Draw   drew   drawn

Dream   dreamed   dreamt

Drink  drank   drunk

Drive   drove   driven

Fall   fell   fallen

Fly   flew   flown

Freeze   froze   frozen

Get   got   given

Know   knew   known

Leap   leapt   leaped

Learn   learned   learnt

Leave   left

Lie   lay   lain

Write   writing   written   wrote

Then, now and maybe later.

And I’ll end this with: future perfect verbs are formed by adding –ing to the verb.