Regular Verbs – English Grammar Exercises for A1
Learning from a Mistake (A Long Walk)
You and your friends walked to a tourist attraction yesterday, but it was much too far! You are very tired today. Now, you are telling another friend about this bad experience to stop them from making the same mistake. Choose the correct form of the verb to complete your story and give your advice.
1 Listen to me, take a taxi! Yesterday, we ______ to the castle, and it was a terrible idea.
(a) walkt
(b) walk
(c) walked
2 We ______ our journey at 1:00 PM when the sun was very hot.
(a) started
(b) start
(c) startted
3 On my phone screen, the castle ______ very close to our hotel.
(a) look
(b) looked
(c) looking
4 We simply ______ to save some money on bus tickets.
(a) wanting
(b) want
(c) wanted
5 I ______ a local shop owner for directions before we left.
(a) asked
(b) askt
(c) ask
6 However, I didn’t ______ the actual distance on the map.
(a) checked
(b) check
(c) checks
7 After just one hour, my friend ______ to call a taxi.
(a) tried
(b) tryed
(c) try
8 But we couldn’t find a taxi, so we ______ walking.
(a) continue
(b) continued
(c) continueed
9 Did you ______ that the road to the castle goes up a very steep hill?
(a) realized
(b) realizing
(c) realize
10 We ______ at a small cafe because we needed water and a rest.
(a) stoped
(b) stop
(c) stopped
11 My feet hurt, and my friends ______ about the heat.
(a) complained
(b) complain
(c) complainned
12 I didn’t ______ to hear their complaints, but I was tired too!
(a) wanted
(b) want
(c) wants
13 We ______ a digital map, but the walking path was closed for repairs.
(a) used
(b) use
(c) useed
14 Finally, we ______ at the castle gates at 4:00 PM.
(a) arrive
(b) arrived
(c) arriving
15 We ______ to walk back to the hotel! We took the bus instead.
(a) didn’t decided
(b) didn’t decide
(c) decide
16 I didn’t ______ the beautiful view because I was too exhausted.
(a) enjoyed
(b) enjoy
(c) enjoys
17 Did the journey really ______ three hours? Yes, it did!
(a) happen
(b) happened
(c) happening
18 We ______ our route very badly, so please learn from our mistake.
(a) planed
(b) plan
(c) planned
19 We ______ half of our day just walking on the street.
(a) wasted
(b) wasteed
(c) waste
20 When we returned, we immediately ______ our hotel room door and slept!
(a) close
(b) didn’t closed
(c) closed
ANSWER KEY & EXPLANATIONS
1 (c) walked
- Why it is correct: “Walked” is the past simple form of “walk” (add -ed). You are talking about a completed action from “yesterday”.
- Why the others are wrong: (a) is a common spelling mistake because the “-ed” sounds like a ‘t’. (b) is the present tense.
2 (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’ (we do not double the ‘t’ in start).
3 (b) looked
- Why it is correct: Adds “-ed” to the base verb “look”.
- Why the others are wrong: (a) is present tense. (c) is the continuous form.
4 (c) wanted
- Why it is correct: Adds “-ed” to the base verb “want”.
- Why the others are wrong: (a) is the continuous form (missing the “to be” verb). (b) is present tense.
5 (a) asked
- Why it is correct: Adds “-ed” to the base verb “ask”.
- Why the others are wrong: (b) spells the word exactly how it sounds (with a ‘t’), which is a common spelling error. (c) is present tense.
6 (b) check
- 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 + checked), which is the most common error for A1 learners. (c) uses the third-person present form.
7 (a) tried
- Why it is correct: “Try” ends in a consonant + y. We change the ‘y’ to ‘i’ and add “-ed”.
- Why the others are wrong: (b) forgets the “y to i” rule. (c) is present tense.
8 (b) continued
- Why it is correct: “Continue” already ends in ‘e’, so we only add ‘d’.
- Why the others are wrong: (a) is present tense. (c) creates a spelling error by adding a full “-ed”, resulting in a double ‘e’.
9 (c) realize
- 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). (b) is the continuous form.
10 (c) 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’ (a very common mistake). (b) is present tense.
11 (a) complained
- Why it is correct: Adds “-ed” to the base verb “complain”.
- Why the others are wrong: (b) is present tense. (c) incorrectly doubles the ‘n’ (we do not double consonants if the word has two vowels before it, like ‘ai’).
12 (b) want
- Why it is correct: After “didn’t”, always use the base verb.
- Why the others are wrong: (a) is the common “double past” mistake. (c) is present tense with an unnecessary ‘s’.
13 (a) used
- Why it is correct: “Use” ends in ‘e’, so just add ‘d’.
- Why the others are wrong: (b) is present tense. (c) creates a spelling error by adding an extra ‘e’.
14 (b) arrived
- Why it is correct: “Arrive” ends in ‘e’, so we add ‘d’.
- Why the others are wrong: (a) is present tense. (c) is the continuous form.
15 (b) didn’t decide
- Why it is correct: To make a negative past simple sentence, we use “didn’t” + the base verb.
- Why the others are wrong: (a) is the “double past” error (didn’t + decided). (c) is affirmative present tense, which does not fit the context of the story.
16 (b) enjoy
- Why it is correct: After “didn’t”, use the base verb. (Notice that even though “enjoy” ends in ‘y’, it stays in its base form here!).
- Why the others are wrong: (a) is the “double past” error. (c) is the present tense.
17 (a) happen
- Why it is correct: After the auxiliary “Did” in a question, we use the base verb.
- Why the others are wrong: (b) is the double past error. (c) is the continuous form.
18 (c) planned
- Why it is correct: “Plan” is a CVC verb. We must double the final ‘n’ before adding “-ed”.
- Why the others are wrong: (a) forgets to double the ‘n’ (which makes it look like the word “plane” – máy bay). (b) is present tense.
19 (a) wasted
- Why it is correct: “Waste” ends in ‘e’, so we just add ‘d’.
- Why the others are wrong: (b) creates a double ‘e’ spelling error. (c) is present tense.
20 (c) closed
- Why it is correct: Adds ‘d’ to the verb “close”.
- Why the others are wrong: (a) is present tense. (b) mixes a negative auxiliary with a past tense verb, which is a structural grammar error.
GRAMMAR POINTS TO REMEMBER
When you want to stop a friend from making a bad choice, sharing your own past mistake is very helpful! Use the Past Simple to describe exactly what happened to you.
- Regular Verb Rules:
- Add -ed: walk → walked, look → looked.
- Ends in -e? Add -d: use → used, arrive → arrived.
- Ends in Consonant + y? Change ‘y’ to ‘i’ + -ed: try → tried.
- Short CVC Words? Double the last letter: stop → stopped, plan → planned.
- The “Base Verb” Trap: * If you use didn’t (for negatives) or Did (for questions), the action verb MUST go back to normal! Do not use “-ed”.
- Correct: I didn’t check the map. / Did you realize it was far?
- Wrong: I didn’t checked the map. / Did you realized it was far?