Regular Verbs

We all use regular verbs every day, but we probably don't even notice them. In fact, there are two in that sentence - "use" and "notice" are both examples of regular verbs. This is because they can be transformed into the past tense simply by adding "-ed" or "-d" to the end of the verb, like this:

"I use a pencil to do my homework" becomes "I used a pencil to do my homework".

"I notice the trees on my way home" becomes "I noticed the trees on my way home".

So, a regular verb always takes this very predictable form when we're moving it from the present into the simple past tense.

Some more regular verbs examples include:

walk - walked

laugh - laughed

jump - jumped

talk - talked

look - looked

agree - agreed

listen - listened

dance - danced

wonder - wondered

wish - wished

As you can see, each of these verbs can very easily be turned into its past-tense equivalent. This is why regular verbs are the first ones children learn - they make it as easy as possible for children to talk and write about what has happened in the past.

There are thousands of regular verbs in English! Each of them behaves the same way as the regular verb examples we've given here. If you want to talk about something that's already happened, you add "-ed" or "-d" to the end of the verb