The spelling of the simple past form (-ed forms)

You will learn the spelling of the simple past form (-ed form.) But before you continue the
lesson study the following examples and try to see how the verbs are spelled.

Verbs ending in a...

1. silent e

2. vowel + y

3. consonant + y

4. other forms

close = closed
marry = married
die = died
play = played
carry = carried
phone = phoned destroy = destroyed study = studied
show = showed

visit = visited
miss = missed
watch = watched
finish = finished
fix = fixed
buzz = buzzed

The rules of the simple past tense forms:

Here are the rules:
1. Regular verbs ending in a silent e take /-d/ in the simple past and past participle:
Example:
close=closed
2. Regular verbs ending in a vowel + y take /-ed/ in the simple past and past participle:
Example:
play=played
3. Regular verbs ending in a consonant + y take /-ied/ in the simple past and past
participle (the y becomes an i followed by /-ed/)
Example:
marry=married
4. All the other regular vebs take /-ed/ in the simple past and past participle.
Example:
visit=visited
Special cases of the -ed forms:
Follow these rules when there is a consonant after a vowel (stop, ban, open, offer...)

If there is a consonant after a stressed vowel at the end of the word, double the
consonant
stop stopped
ban - banned
swap - swapped

If the vowel is not stressed, we do not double it:

open - opened (Here the stress is on'o', not the 'e'.)
offer - offered ( Here the stress is on 'o', not the 'e'.)

In British English we double the last l even though the last vowel is not stressed. Here are some
examples:

travel - travelled
cancel - cancelled
level - levelled
marvel - marvelled