Regular Verbs – English Grammar Exercises for A1
Chore Announcement (Texting your Roommates/Family)
Imagine you are living with roommates or your family. You just spent the morning cleaning the house and you are texting them to give an update on what you finished. Choose the correct form of the regular verb to complete each message.
1 Hey guys, I just ______ the living room. It looks great now!
(a) clean
(b) cleanned
(c) cleaned
2 I ______ all the dirty dishes in the sink, so the kitchen is clear.
(a) washed
(b) washt
(c) wash
3 I ______ a big pot of soup for our dinner tonight.
(a) cook
(b) cooked
(c) cooking
4 I finally ______ my list of chores for today. I am so tired!
(a) finishes
(b) finished
(c) finish
5 I ______ the kitchen table with a wet cloth because it was sticky.
(a) wiped
(b) wipe
(c) wipeed
6 I didn’t ______ the bedroom because you were still sleeping.
(a) vacuumed
(b) vacuum
(c) vacuums
7 ______ you remember to take out the trash before you went to work?
(a) Were
(b) Do
(c) Did
8 I ______ up all the magazines and books on the coffee table.
(a) tidied
(b) tidyed
(c) tidy
9 I ______ the plants on the balcony, so you don’t need to do it.
(a) water
(b) watered
(c) waterred
10 I didn’t ______ the clothes yet, but they are dry and ready in the basket.
(a) folded
(b) folds
(c) fold
11 I ______ the recycling bin and put a new plastic bag inside it.
(a) emptid
(b) emptyed
(c) emptied
12 Did the washing machine ______ yet? I want to hang the clothes outside.
(a) stopped
(b) stop
(c) stopping
13 I ______ the dusty bookshelves in the hallway this morning.
(a) dusted
(b) dust
(c) dustted
14 We didn’t ______ to buy more dish soap; I found an extra bottle in the cabinet.
(a) needed
(b) needing
(c) need
15 I just ______ the bathroom floor, so please be careful. It is very wet!
(a) mopped
(b) moped
(c) mop
16 I ______ home all afternoon to organize the garage.
(a) staied
(b) stayed
(c) stay
17 The kitchen sink was leaking, but I ______ it with some tools.
(a) fixed
(b) fixxed
(c) fixt
18 Did you ______ the back door after you watered the garden?
(a) locked
(b) lock
(c) locking
19 I ______ the bathroom mirror with a towel until it was perfectly shiny.
(a) rubed
(b) rubbed
(c) rub
20 I ______ the wet plates and put them away in the cupboard.
(a) dryed
(b) dried
(c) didn’t dried
ANSWER KEY & EXPLANATIONS
1 (c) cleaned
- Why it is correct: Adds “-ed” to the base verb “clean” to show a completed past action.
- Why the others are wrong: (a) is present tense. (b) incorrectly doubles the ‘n’ (we do not double the consonant when there are two vowels before it, like ‘ea’).
2 (a) washed
- Why it is correct: Adds “-ed” to the base verb “wash”.
- Why the others are wrong: (b) spells the word exactly how it sounds (with a ‘t’), which is a very common A1 spelling error. (c) is present tense.
3 (b) cooked
- Why it is correct: Adds “-ed” to the base verb “cook”.
- Why the others are wrong: (a) is present tense. (c) is the continuous form.
4 (b) finished
- Why it is correct: Adds “-ed” to the base verb “finish”.
- Why the others are wrong: (a) is third-person present tense. (c) is the base present tense.
5 (a) wiped
- Why it is correct: “Wipe” ends in ‘e’, so we just add ‘d’.
- Why the others are wrong: (b) is present tense. (c) creates a double ‘e’ spelling error by adding a full “-ed”.
6 (b) vacuum
- Why it is correct: In a negative past simple sentence, after the auxiliary “didn’t”, we must use the base form of the verb.
- Why the others are wrong: (a) is the “double past” mistake (didn’t + vacuumed), which is the most common grammar error. (c) is present tense with an unnecessary ‘s’.
7 (c) Did
- Why it is correct: “Did” is the correct auxiliary verb to form a Past Simple question.
- Why the others are wrong: (a) “Were” is the “to be” verb, which cannot be used with a main verb like “remember”. (b) is present tense.
8 (a) tidied
- Why it is correct: “Tidy” ends in a consonant + ‘y’ (d+y). We change ‘y’ to ‘i’ and add “-ed”.
- Why the others are wrong: (b) forgets the “y to i” rule. (c) is present tense.
9 (b) watered
- Why it is correct: Adds “-ed” to the base verb “water”.
- Why the others are wrong: (a) is present tense. (c) incorrectly doubles the ‘r’ (the stress is on the first syllable: WA-ter, so we do not double the last letter).
10 (c) fold
- Why it is correct: After “didn’t”, always use the base verb.
- Why the others are wrong: (a) is the “double past” error. (b) is present tense.
11 (c) emptied
- Why it is correct: “Empty” ends in a consonant + ‘y’ (t+y). Change ‘y’ to ‘i’ and add “-ed”.
- Why the others are wrong: (a) forgets the ‘e’ in “-ed”. (b) forgets the “y to i” rule.
12 (b) stop
- Why it is correct: In a question starting with “Did”, the main verb must remain in its base form.
- Why the others are wrong: (a) uses the past form after “Did” (a double past error). (c) is the continuous form.
13 (a) dusted
- Why it is correct: Adds “-ed” to the base verb “dust”.
- Why the others are wrong: (b) is present tense. (c) incorrectly doubles the ‘t’.
14 (c) need
- Why it is correct: After “didn’t”, use the base verb.
- Why the others are wrong: (a) is the “double past” error. (b) is the continuous form.
15 (a) mopped
- Why it is correct: “Mop” is a short CVC (Consonant-Vowel-Consonant) verb. We must double the final consonant (‘p’) before adding “-ed”.
- Why the others are wrong: (b) forgets to double the ‘p’ (which changes the pronunciation to “mope”). (c) is present tense.
16 (b) stayed
- Why it is correct: “Stay” ends in a vowel + ‘y’ (a+y). Therefore, we just add “-ed”. We do NOT change ‘y’ to ‘i’.
- Why the others are wrong: (a) incorrectly applies the “y to i” rule. (c) is present tense.
17 (a) fixed
- Why it is correct: Adds “-ed” to the base verb “fix”. (Exception note: We never double the letters ‘w’, ‘x’, or ‘y’ at the end of a word, even if it looks like a CVC word).
- Why the others are wrong: (b) incorrectly doubles the ‘x’. (c) spells the word phonetically (‘fixt’), a common mistake.
18 (b) lock
- Why it is correct: After the auxiliary “Did” in a question, we use the base verb.
- Why the others are wrong: (a) is the double past error. (c) is the continuous form.
19 (b) rubbed
- Why it is correct: “Rub” is a CVC verb. We must double the final consonant (‘b’) before adding “-ed”.
- Why the others are wrong: (a) forgets to double the ‘b’. (c) is present tense.
20 (b) dried
- Why it is correct: “Dry” ends in a consonant + ‘y’ (r+y). Change ‘y’ to ‘i’ and add “-ed”.
- Why the others are wrong: (a) forgets the spelling rule. (c) mixes a negative auxiliary with a past tense verb.
GRAMMAR POINTS TO REMEMBER
When you want to tell someone that you have finished cleaning or organizing, the Past Simple is the perfect tense to use. It shows that the hard work is over and the result is ready!
- Regular Verb Spelling Rules:
- Add -ed: wash → washed, cook → cooked.
- Ends in -e: Just add -d (wipe → wiped).
- Ends in Consonant + y: Change ‘y’ to ‘i’ and add -ed (tidy → tidied, dry → dried, empty → emptied).
- Ends in Vowel + y: Just add -ed (stay → stayed).
- Short CVC Words: Double the last consonant before adding -ed (mop → mopped, rub → rubbed). (Remember: Never double x, w, or y! fix → fixed).
- The “Base Verb” Rule: If you use didn’t or Did, the action verb MUST go back to its base form.
- Correct: I didn’t vacuum. / Did the machine stop?
- Wrong: I didn’t vacuumed. / Did the machine stopped?