Regular Verbs – English Grammar Exercises for A1
Today is Monday. You are in class telling your desk-mate about your weekend trip to visit your grandparents in the countryside, or a nice weekend walk. You are listing a series of actions you did with your family.
Choose the best option (A, B, or C) to fill in the blanks and complete your weekend story.
1 Last weekend, I ______ my grandparents in the countryside.
(a) visited
(b) visit
(c) visiting
2 The weather was beautiful, so we ______ in the park for two hours on Saturday morning.
(a) walk
(b) walked
(c) walkked
3 My grandmother cooked a big lunch, and I really ______ it.
(a) liked
(b) likeed
(c) like
4 We ______ at their house very early in the morning.
(a) arrived
(b) arrive
(c) arriveed
5 After lunch, my grandfather and I sat in the garden and ______ for a long time.
(a) talkked
(b) talk
(c) talked
6 It rained on Sunday afternoon, so we didn’t ______ basketball outside.
(a) played
(b) play
(c) playing
7 My grandmother was tired, so I ______ her heavy bags for her.
(a) carryed
(b) carried
(c) carry
8 It was a great weekend. We ______ at their house for two days.
(a) stayed
(b) staied
(c) stay
9 “Did you ______ your cousins during the trip?” “Yes, I did. We played games together.”
(a) visited
(b) visit
(c) visiting
10 On the way home, our car ______ at a beautiful lake to take photos.
(a) stopped
(b) stoped
(c) stop
11 We were very busy having fun, so we didn’t ______ any TV all weekend.
(a) watched
(b) watching
(c) watch
12 My aunt ______ us to her house for a special dinner on Saturday evening.
(a) invite
(b) invited
(c) inviteed
13 “______ you help your grandma with the garden?” “Yes, I ______.”
(a) Did / did
(b) Do / do
(c) Did / helped
14 After dinner, my brother and I ______ all the dirty dishes.
(a) washed
(b) wash
(c) washhed
15 Before the trip, we ______ a surprise party for my grandfather’s birthday.
(a) planned
(b) planed
(c) plan
16 My parents didn’t ______ to drive at night because it was very dark.
(a) wanted
(b) want
(c) wanting
17 My grandma baked a new cake, and I ______ a small piece. It was delicious!
(a) tryed
(b) try
(c) tried
18 “What time ______ you ______ at the train station?” “At 5 PM.”
(a) did / arrived
(b) did / arrive
(c) do / arrived
19 At the party, we ______ to the music and ______ all night long.
(a) listened / danced
(b) listen / dance
(c) listened / danceed
20 I ______ to call you on Sunday, but my phone didn’t ______ because it had no battery.
(a) tryed / worked
(b) tried / work
(c) tried / worked
ANSWER KEY & EXPLANATIONS
1 (a) visited
- Why it’s correct: The event happened in the past (“Last weekend”), so the regular verb “visit” takes “-ed” to become “visited”.
- Why the others are wrong: (b) is Present Simple, not used for past events. (c) is the V-ing form, which is structurally incorrect here.
2 (b) walked
- Why it’s correct: Add “-ed” to “walk”.
- Why the others are wrong: (a) is Present Simple. (c) is a spelling error because doubling the “k” is unnecessary.
3 (a) liked
- Why it’s correct: The verb “like” already ends in “e”, so you just add “d”.
- Why the others are wrong: (b) is a spelling error with two “e”s (likeed). (c) is Present Simple.
4 (a) arrived
- Why it’s correct: Similar to above, “arrive” ends in “e”, so just add “d”.
- Why the others are wrong: (b) is Present Simple. (c) is a spelling error (arriveed).
5 (c) talked
- Why it’s correct: Add “-ed” normally to “talk”.
- Why the others are wrong: (a) is a spelling error (unnecessarily doubling the “k”). (b) is Present Simple.
6 (b) play
- Why it’s correct: This is a negative sentence in the past. When you use the auxiliary verb “didn’t”, the main verb MUST return to its base form (play).
- Why the others are wrong: (a) adding “-ed” when “didn’t” is already there is a classic A1 mistake. (c) V-ing is structurally incorrect.
7 (b) carried
- Why it’s correct: “Carry” ends in a Consonant + “y” (r + y). You must change the “y” to “i” before adding “-ed” (carried).
- Why the others are wrong: (a) keeping the “y” is a spelling error (carryed). (c) is Present Simple.
8 (a) stayed
- Why it’s correct: “Stay” ends in a Vowel + “y” (a + y). In this case, you DO NOT change the “y” to “i”; just add “-ed” normally.
- Why the others are wrong: (b) changing “y” to “i” here is a rule violation (staied). (c) is Present Simple.
9 (b) visit
- Why it’s correct: In a question with the auxiliary verb “Did”, the main verb stays in its base form.
- Why the others are wrong: (a) adding “-ed” in a question is grammatically incorrect. (c) V-ing is structurally incorrect.
10 (a) stopped
- Why it’s correct: “Stop” is a one-syllable verb with a Consonant-Vowel-Consonant (t-o-p) pattern. You must double the final consonant “p” before adding “-ed”.
- Why the others are wrong: (b) forgets to double the “p” (stoped). (c) is Present Simple.
11 (c) watch
- Why it’s correct: Negative sentence with “didn’t”, so the verb stays in its base form.
- Why the others are wrong: (a) incorrectly adds “-ed” after “didn’t”. (b) uses V-ing.
12 (b) invited
- Why it’s correct: “Invite” ends in “e”, so just add “d”.
- Why the others are wrong: (a) is Present Simple. (c) has an extra “e” (inviteed).
13 (a) Did / did
- Why it’s correct: A past tense Yes/No question starts with “Did”. The corresponding short answer is “Yes, I did”.
- Why the others are wrong: (b) uses “Do/do”, which is wrong for the past tense context. (c) replying “Yes, I helped” sounds unnatural and breaks the standard Short Answer format.
14 (a) washed
- Why it’s correct: Add “-ed” normally to “wash”.
- Why the others are wrong: (b) is Present Simple. (c) incorrectly doubles the “h” (washhed).
15 (a) planned
- Why it’s correct: “Plan” is a short CVC word (l-a-n). Double the “n” before adding “-ed” (planned).
- Why the others are wrong: (b) forgets to double the “n” (planed actually means to shave wood). (c) is Present Simple.
16 (b) want
- Why it’s correct: “Didn’t” requires the base verb.
- Why the others are wrong: (a) incorrectly adds “-ed” after “didn’t”. (c) uses V-ing.
17 (c) tried
- Why it’s correct: Consonant + “y” (try). Change “y” to “i” and add “-ed”.
- Why the others are wrong: (a) keeps the “y” (tryed). (b) is Present Simple.
18 (b) did / arrive
- Why it’s correct: Wh- question structure for the past: Wh-word + did + Subject + base verb (What time + did + you + arrive?).
- Why the others are wrong: (a) incorrectly adds “-ed” to the main verb even though “did” is present. (c) uses “do”, which is wrong for the past tense.
19 (a) listened / danced
- Why it’s correct: Recounting a sequence of past actions (“we listened to music AND danced”). Both verbs must be in the past tense.
- Why the others are wrong: (b) uses Present Simple for both. (c) misspells “danced” as “danceed”.
20 (b) tried / work
- Why it’s correct: The first clause is affirmative past (“try” → “tried”). The second clause is negative with “didn’t”, so “work” must remain in its base form.
- Why the others are wrong: (a) misspells “tried” and incorrectly adds “-ed” after “didn’t”. (c) incorrectly adds “-ed” after “didn’t”.
GRAMMAR POINTS TO REMEMBER
- The Signal: When recounting a sequence of events or actions that happened in a specific time in the past (last weekend, yesterday, in the morning), use the Past Simple tense.
- General Rule for Regular Verbs: Simply add the suffix “-ed” to the end of the verb.
- walk → walked, wash → washed, talk → talked.
- Three “Must-Know” Spelling Rules for A1:
- Ends in silent “e”: Just add “d“. (like → liked, arrive → arrived, dance → danced).
- Ends in Consonant + “y”: Change “y” to “i” and add “-ed“. (carry → carried, try → tried). Note: If a vowel (a, e, i, o, u) comes before the “y”, just add “-ed” normally (play → played, stay → stayed).
- Short 1-syllable verbs ending in Consonant-Vowel-Consonant (CVC): Double the final consonant before adding “-ed”. (stop → stopped, plan → planned).
- The Most Common Trap (Questions and Negatives):
- In questions and negative sentences, we borrow the helper verbs Did / Didn’t.
- Golden Rule: Once you use Did/Didn’t, the main verb MUST NOT TAKE “-ED” (it returns to its base form).
- ❌ I didn’t watched TV.
- ✅ I didn’t watch TV.
- ❌ Did you visited them?
- ✅ Did you visit them?