Regular Verbs – English Grammar Exercises for A1
Reporting a Street Incident
You and your friend are walking down the street when you suddenly see a small traffic incident. You are telling your friend exactly what you just saw. Choose the correct form of the regular verb to complete your story.
1 Oh my goodness! I just ______ across the street and saw something crazy!
(a) look
(b) looked
(c) lookked
2 A really scary incident ______ right in front of the supermarket.
(a) happened
(b) happen
(c) happenning
3 A man with a dog ______ onto the road without looking.
(a) walkt
(b) walk
(c) walked
4 Suddenly, the green traffic light ______ to flash.
(a) started
(b) starts
(c) startted
5 I ______ the whole thing from the corner of the street!
(a) watched
(b) watch
(c) watches
6 A big city bus ______ very suddenly to avoid hitting the man.
(a) stoped
(b) stopped
(c) stop
7 The bus driver ______ his coffee cup because he was so surprised.
(a) dropped
(b) droped
(c) dropping
8 The driver ______ hard to steer the bus to the left side.
(a) tryed
(b) try
(c) tried
9 The bus ______ quickly and made a very loud noise.
(a) turned
(b) turn
(c) turnned
10 It almost ______ into the street lamp, but luckily it missed!
(a) crasht
(b) crash
(c) crashed
11 The man with the dog quickly ______ back onto the sidewalk.
(a) steped
(b) stepped
(c) step
12 Two people from the coffee shop ______ over to help him.
(a) hurried
(b) hurryed
(c) hurrys
13 Someone ______ loudly to ask if everyone was okay.
(a) shouts
(b) shoutted
(c) shouted
14 A woman ______ the man’s arm to pull him safely away from the road.
(a) grabbed
(b) grabed
(c) grab
15 A police officer ______ at the scene just one minute later.
(a) arrive
(b) arrived
(c) arriveed
16 Thank goodness, the bus didn’t ______ the man or the dog.
(a) bumped
(b) bumping
(c) bump
17 Did the police officer ______ the bus driver any questions?
(a) ask
(b) asked
(c) asks
18 Yes, and he also ______ the front tires of the bus.
(a) checkked
(b) checked
(c) check
19 The man was a little scared, but he didn’t ______ a doctor.
(a) want
(b) wanted
(c) wants
20 The police finally ______ the road, and the traffic is moving again now.
(a) clear
(b) cleard
(c) cleared
ANSWER KEY & EXPLANATIONS
1 (b) looked
- Why it is correct: Adds “-ed” to the base verb “look” for a completed action in the past.
- Why the others are wrong: (a) is present tense. (c) incorrectly doubles the ‘k’ (we do not double ‘k’ because ‘oo’ is a double vowel).
2 (a) happened
- Why it is correct: Adds “-ed” to the base verb “happen”.
- Why the others are wrong: (b) is present tense. (c) is the continuous form with a spelling error.
3 (c) walked
- Why it is correct: Adds “-ed” to the base verb “walk”.
- Why the others are wrong: (a) spells the word exactly how it sounds (with a ‘t’), which is a very common mistake for A1 learners. (b) is present tense.
4 (a) started
- Why it is correct: Adds “-ed” to the base verb “start”.
- Why the others are wrong: (b) is present tense. (c) incorrectly doubles the ‘t’.
5 (a) watched
- Why it is correct: Adds “-ed” to the base verb “watch”.
- Why the others are wrong: (b) is present tense. (c) is third-person present tense.
6 (b) stopped
- Why it is correct: “Stop” is a short CVC (Consonant-Vowel-Consonant) verb. We MUST double the final consonant (‘p’) before adding “-ed”.
- Why the others are wrong: (a) forgets to double the ‘p’, which is a major spelling mistake. (c) is present tense.
7 (a) dropped
- Why it is correct: “Drop” is a CVC verb. Double the final ‘p’ and add “-ed”.
- Why the others are wrong: (b) forgets to double the ‘p’. (c) is the continuous form.
8 (c) tried
- Why it is correct: “Try” ends in a consonant + y. Change the ‘y’ to ‘i’ and add “-ed”.
- Why the others are wrong: (a) forgets the “y to i” rule. (b) is present tense.
9 (a) turned
- Why it is correct: Adds “-ed” to the base verb “turn”.
- Why the others are wrong: (b) is present tense. (c) incorrectly doubles the ‘n’.
10 (c) crashed
- Why it is correct: Adds “-ed” to the base verb “crash”.
- Why the others are wrong: (a) spells the word with a ‘t’ based on pronunciation, a common error. (b) is present tense.
11 (b) stepped
- Why it is correct: “Step” is a short CVC verb. Double the final ‘p’ before adding “-ed”.
- Why the others are wrong: (a) forgets to double the ‘p’. (c) is present tense.
12 (a) hurried
- Why it is correct: “Hurry” ends in a consonant + y. Change ‘y’ to ‘i’ and add “-ed”.
- Why the others are wrong: (b) forgets the spelling rule. (c) is present tense.
13 (c) shouted
- Why it is correct: Adds “-ed” to the base verb “shout”.
- Why the others are wrong: (a) is present tense. (b) incorrectly doubles the ‘t’ (we do not double the consonant when there are two vowels before it, like ‘ou’).
14 (a) grabbed
- Why it is correct: “Grab” is a CVC verb. We must double the final consonant (‘b’) before adding “-ed”.
- Why the others are wrong: (b) forgets to double the ‘b’. (c) is present tense.
15 (b) arrived
- Why it is correct: “Arrive” already ends in ‘e’, so we just add ‘d’.
- Why the others are wrong: (a) is present tense. (c) incorrectly adds a full “-ed”, creating a double ‘e’ error.
16 (c) bump
- 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 + bumped), the most common grammar error. (b) is the continuous form.
17 (a) ask
- Why it is correct: In a question starting with “Did”, the main verb must remain in its base form.
- Why the others are wrong: (b) uses the past form after “Did” (a double past error). (c) is present tense.
18 (b) checked
- Why it is correct: Adds “-ed” to the base verb “check”.
- Why the others are wrong: (a) incorrectly doubles the ‘k’ (‘ck’ is already a double consonant sound). (c) is present tense.
19 (a) want
- Why it is correct: After “didn’t”, always use the base verb.
- Why the others are wrong: (b) is the common “double past” mistake. (c) is third-person present tense.
20 (c) cleared
- Why it is correct: Adds “-ed” to the base verb “clear”.
- Why the others are wrong: (a) is present tense. (b) forgets the ‘e’ in the “-ed” ending.
GRAMMAR POINTS TO REMEMBER
When you see an incident on the street and want to report it, you use the Past Simple to describe the quick actions that just happened. Pay special attention to your spelling when writing!
- The Important CVC Rule (Double the Consonant!): If a short verb ends in Consonant-Vowel-Consonant, you MUST double the last letter before adding -ed. This makes your writing accurate.
- stop → stopped
- drop → dropped
- step → stepped
- grab → grabbed
- The “Y” Rule: Change ‘y’ to ‘i’ + -ed (try → tried, hurry → hurried).
- Base Verb Rule (Negatives & Questions): Remember, if you use didn’t or Did, the action verb loses its “-ed” and goes back to normal!
- Correct: The bus didn’t bump the car. / Did the police ask questions?
- Wrong: The bus didn’t bumped the car. / Did the police asked questions?