Spelling of the -ed forms

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