Past simple: -ed verbs
Yesterday's grammar: add -ed and any verb travels back in time. The regular half of the past, taught first because it is fair.
From age 7Building sentences →
✏️ The pattern
- Saying it
- I played. She helped.
- Saying no
- I didn't play.
- Asking
- Did you play?
- Short answer
- Yes, I did. / No, I didn't.
🗣️ Sentences a child can say
Tap any sentence to hear it. Every one uses words from a topic pack you already have.
🩹 What you will actually hear
The three mistakes that come up in every class, and what is behind each one.
I didn't played.I didn't play.
Did already carries the past — the main verb hands the -ed over and goes back to its base form. One past marker per sentence.
I play football yesterday.I played football yesterday.
Yesterday demands a past verb. Train the pair: hear a time word, check the verb's tail.
🎯 How to teach it
- 1
Anchor it to a real yesterday: Monday's lesson starts with 'What did you do at the weekend?' — the question that will open lessons for the next ten years.
- 2
Teach the three sounds of -ed by sorting: played /d/, helped /t/, visited /id/. Clap the syllables of visited — hearing the extra beat prevents 'help-ed'.
- 3
Keep a class diary: one sentence after every lesson ('We played bingo. We sang.'). Reading last month's page IS the past simple, self-demonstrating.
🗂️ Topic packs that pair with this
Same structure, words your class already knows — no new vocabulary needed.
💬 Questions teachers ask
Regular or irregular verbs first?
Was/were first, then -ed, then irregulars in small famous handfuls (went, saw, ate). The -ed rule gives forty verbs for one lesson's work; irregulars are a collection children build for years.
My students say every -ed as a full syllable. Bad habit?
A harmless stage — Russian and Spanish both love full vowels. Model the short forms without correcting, and the extra syllable evaporates with exposure.