regular verbs

The spelling pattern for regular verbs

Regular verbs follow a spelling pattern for past and past participle endings.

Add -d to one- or two-syllable verbs ending in e.

  • bake (baked)
  • live (lived)
  • type (typed)

Add -ed if the word has two consonants.

  • start (started)
  • burn (burned)
  • refund (refunded)

Add -ed to one-syllable, one-vowel verbs. In this case you double the consonant before -ed.

  • stop (stopped)
  • trap (trapped)
  • ban (banned)

Add -ied to verbs ending in y. (Also drop the y.)

  • study (studied)
  • try (tried)
  • marry (married)

*Note: Other spelling rules exist for adding -ed. Above are two common rules that are easy to remember.