Lesson 2 of 7 · ~4 minutes
Lesson 2 · Past Simple
Spelling
Spelling of -ed
The ending is always -ed, but the end of the verb itself sometimes changes. Three cases — everything else is simple.
Three cases
- -dthe verb already ends in e — add only d: live → lived, like → liked, close → closed
- -iedconsonant + y: study → studied, try → tried. After a vowel, y stays: play → played
- doublinga short verb ending in “vowel + one consonant” doubles it: stop → stopped, plan → planned, shop → shopped
If the verb ends in
- most letters
- -e
- consonant + y
- vowel + one consonant
We write
- -ed
- -d
- y → ied
- double + -ed
Example
- work → worked
- live → lived
- study → studied
- stop → stopped
We studied together last year.
The bus stopped here.
In short
- usually-ed
- ending in -elive → lived
- consonant + ystudy → studied
- vowel + consonantstop → stopped