Around the world in 72 days: the past simple with regular verbs and -ed

Q: What is the past simple?

The past simple is the tense for finished actions at a known time : She arrived in 1890. We walked to the pier yesterday. With regular verbs, it is the base form + -ed, and one form fits every person: I started , he started , they started . Time words such as yesterday , last week and in 1966 often go with it.

Q: How do you form the past tense of regular verbs?

Add -ed to the base form , and use that one form for every person: walk , walked ; visit , visited ; start , started . So I walked , she walked and they walked are all right, with no -s and no did . Some endings change the spelling first: arrived , carried , stopped . In Around the world in 72 days , an A2 lesson on edio.ai, a table turns She carries her camera every day into the past.

Q: Is the simple past the same as the past simple?

Yes: simple past and past simple name the same tense . American grammar books often say simple past , while British ones tend to say past simple , but the verbs don't change: She traveled with one small bag. We started in Hoboken. Both names cover the same forms: regular verbs add -ed ( traveled ), and irregular verbs have their own ( went , saw ).

Q: What are regular verbs?

Regular verbs are verbs that form the past simple with -ed : walk , walked ; play , played ; explore , explored . Most English verbs are regular, so a new verb usually follows the pattern. Irregular verbs such as go and see have their own past forms, went and saw , and are learned one by one. Every drill in Around the world in 72 days , an edio.ai lesson for A2, sticks to regular verbs.

Q: How do you spell regular verbs in the past simple?

Most regular verbs simply add -ed, but a few endings change the spelling . A final e takes only -d ( arrive , arrived ); a consonant + y becomes -ied ( carry , carried ); and a short verb ending in one vowel and one consonant doubles it ( stop , stopped ; plan , planned ). A vowel + y just adds -ed: played , stayed . American English keeps one l in traveled .

Q: How do you pronounce the -ed ending?

The -ed ending has three sounds: /t/, /d/ and /ɪd/ . It sounds like /t/ after p, k, s, sh, ch and f sounds ( stopped , walked , watched ), and like /d/ after other sounds, vowels included ( traveled , played , grabbed ). Only after t or d does it add a syllable: started , visited , ended . A homework drill in the A2 lesson Around the world in 72 days on edio.ai sorts twelve verbs into the three sounds.

Q: Is it "traveled" or "travelled"?

In American English, it's traveled , with one l ; travelled is the British spelling. The same goes for traveling and traveler . American spelling usually doubles a final consonant only when the last syllable is stressed, and travel is stressed on its first: TRAV-el . Short verbs still double, as in stopped and planned . On edio.ai, the A2 lesson Around the world in 72 days lists She travelled around the world among its common mistakes.

Q: Is it "she traveled" or "she did traveled"?

Say she traveled : past statements need no did . The -ed form carries the past by itself: We started our trip in Hoboken. I packed one small bag. Did is for questions and negatives, and there the verb goes back to its base form: Did she travel? She didn't travel. After a past time word, the verb must be past too: In 1889, she traveled , not she travels .

Q: What words do you need to talk about travel?

To talk about travel, you need verbs for going places and words for transport : travel (go to other places, often far away), explore (look around a new place), steamship , pickup truck and trailer , a small house you pull behind a car. Add places on the way, such as a pier , a long walkway from the land into water, and a city's skyline . Both verbs are regular in the past: traveled , explored .

Q: How do I teach the past simple to A2 students?

Begin with regular verbs in a true story , so the -ed form does real work before any rule: She sailed. She visited. She arrived. Then sort the verbs by spelling and by sound, practice them with time words, and leave irregular verbs, negatives and questions for later lessons. The A2 lesson Around the world in 72 days on edio.ai follows that order, from a post about a real trip to the scheme and four drills.

An A2 ESL lesson plan on the past simple with regular verbs, for telling the story of a journey.

Grammar: Regular verbs in past simple statements: the base form + -ed for every person (She visited France.), the spelling rules (carried, stopped, traveled) and the three ways to say -ed.
Topic: Travel and journeys, from Hoboken, New Jersey, where the reporter Nellie Bly set off around the world in 1889, with words such as steamship, pier, skyline and trailer.
Activities: A travel channel's post to read, a riverside dialogue and a voice message to hear, self-checking drills, a chat with a viewer and open boxes for telling a journey.

What's inside

Chapter 1Pack your bags!
- PictureUnlock
- Spin the wheel and answerSpin the wheelUnlock
- Study the words: on the roadVocabularyTry it
- Look at the pictures and chooseChoose by pictureUnlock
Chapter 2Let's read: day one!
- Look at the photo: around the world with one bagPictureUnlock
- Read Nora's postReal-life documentTry it
- Read and mark true or falseTrue or falseUnlock
- Read again and choose the correct answerQuizUnlock
Chapter 3Let's listen: hello, Hoboken!
- Look at the photo: Big Blue and the ToasterPictureUnlock
- Listen to Nora and MarcoListeningTry it
- Transcript, for the teacherUnlock
- Listen and choose the correct answerQuizUnlock
- Listen to Grandpa's ChallengeListeningUnlock
- Transcript, for the teacherUnlock
- Listen and mark true or falseTrue or falseUnlock
Chapter 4Grammar: we traveled!
- Study the scheme: the past simple with -edGrammar schemeTry it
- Choose the correct optionChoose the optionUnlock
- Fill in the gaps: put the verbs in the past simpleFill in the gapsTry it
- Choose the correct answer: how do you say -ed?QuizUnlock
- Fill in the table: every day and in the pastFill in the tableUnlock
Chapter 5Let's talk: live from day one
- Choose the right replies: you are NoraChatTry it
- Open a box and answer: tell a journeyOpen the boxUnlock
Chapter 6Homework
- Match the words and the meaningsMatchUnlock
- Choose the correct sentenceQuizUnlock
- Unscramble the words: on the roadAnagramUnlock
- Fill in the gaps: put the verbs in the past simpleFill in the gapsUnlock
- Drag the words into the gapsDrag and dropUnlock
- Sort the words into the correct columns: the -ed soundSort into columnsUnlock
- Find the matching pairs: who or what?Memory gameUnlock
- Put the words in the correct orderUnjumbleUnlock
- Choose the correct option: Nora's postcard to GrandpaChoose the optionUnlock

Travel vocabulary

10 words and phrases from the lesson, each with a picture and audio in edio.

+7 more with pictures and audio in the lessonMore words

newspaper
steamship
pier
skyline
pickup truck
trailer
beagle

Grammar: the past simple of regular verbs

A journey is a chain of finished actions, and the past simple is the tense that tells them: She sailed from Hoboken and visited France. Learners start the past tense with regular verbs, one -ed form for every person, then learn to spell it, to say it and to use it with past time words. Irregular verbs come next.

We traveled. She started. They stopped.

The past simple of regular verbs: verb + -ed. One form for every person.

Then and now: one form for every person

The timeline sets finished actions apart from now: 1889: Nellie Bly traveled around the world. The table then shows that -ed never changes with the person: I started, she started, we started. Be is the one verb with two past forms, was and were.

Then and now

1889: Nellie Bly traveled around the world.
1966: Grandpa started his road trip.
this morning: Biscuit grabbed Marco's bagel.
now: Nora and Marco travel with Grandpa's map.

One form for every person

Who	start → started	be → was / were
I	I started	I was
you	you started	you were
he	he started	he was
she	she started	she was
it	it started	it was
we	we started	we were
they	they started	they were

Spelling: -ed, -d, -ied or a double letter

Most verbs add -ed (walked, visited), and a final e takes only -d (arrived). After a consonant, y turns into -ied (carried), but after a vowel it stays (played). Short verbs ending in one vowel and one consonant double the last letter: stopped, planned. In American English, traveled doesn't.

The verb	Add	Examples
most verbs	-ed	walk → walked, visit → visited
ends in e	only -d	arrive → arrived, explore → explored
consonant + y	y → -ied	carry → carried, study → studied, try → tried
vowel + y	-ed	play → played, stay → stayed
a short verb (one syllable): one vowel + one consonant	double the consonant + -ed	stop → stopped, grab → grabbed, plan → planned
travel	-ed, one l	travel → traveled

Three ways to say -ed

After p, k, s, sh, ch and f sounds, -ed sounds like /t/: walked, packed, watched. After other sounds, vowels too, it sounds like /d/: traveled, explored, played. Only after t or d is -ed a syllable of its own, /ɪd/: started, visited, waited.

Sound	When?	Examples
/t/	after p, k, s, sh, ch, f sounds	walked, stopped, packed, crossed, watched
/d/	after other sounds (b, l, m, n, r, v, vowels…)	traveled, arrived, explored, played, grabbed
/ɪd/ (one more syllable)	after t or d	started, visited, wanted, waited, ended

No did, and a past time word

Statements need no helper verb: She traveled, never She did traveled. Past time words call for the past form, whether yesterday, this morning, last week or in 1889: In 1889, she traveled, not In 1889, she travels. The sentences from the trip put it all together.

No did · past time words

In a sentence, use the -ed form. No did: She traveled. (Not: She did traveled.) With yesterday, this morning, last week or in 1889, use the past: In 1889, she traveled. (Not: In 1889, she travels.)

Sentences from the trip

Nellie Bly traveled around the world in 1889.
She visited Jules Verne in France.
In 1966, Grandpa packed one small bag.
This morning, Biscuit grabbed Marco's bagel.
Marco carried his pans to the Toaster.
We started our trip in Hoboken.

Common mistakes

She travelled around the world.
She traveled around the world.
travel → traveled: one l
The bus stoped here.
The bus stopped here.
stop → stopped: double the p
Marco carryed his pans.
Marco carried his pans.
consonant + y → -ied
She arriveed in 1890.
She arrived in 1890.
ends in e: add only -d

More lessons on this grammar: Past simple lessons and exercises

Try the past simple exercises

Try them yourself: these are the same exercises your students do in edio.

What's in the lesson

16 auto-checked exercises
5 games
1 real-life document
1 grammar scheme
1 set of word cards
2 audio clips
3 pictures
2 transcripts

The main objectives of this lesson are to:

tell a journey in the past with regular verbs: She sailed from Hoboken on a steamship. She arrived in Jersey City in 1890.
spell the -ed form: arrived, carried, played and stopped, and traveled with one l
say the three endings of -ed: /t/ in walked, /d/ in traveled and /ɪd/ in started
use the past form after a past time word: Yesterday, I walked to the pier. Last summer, my family explored New York City.

Lesson 1 opens Amazing journeys, the first unit of English A2.1 · Then and Now. It builds on was and were, the past of be from lesson 29 of English A1.2 · Out and About, and gives other verbs a past form, regular verbs first; irregular verbs follow in lesson 2 and didn't in lesson 3. A trip that began in 1889 can only be told in the past, so the reading needs the new forms from its first lines.

A spin wheel of travel questions opens the lesson, followed by ten word cards with pictures and audio, from travel and explore to pier and beagle. The reading is the first post on a travel channel, about Nellie Bly's 72 days around the world, with comments from viewers. Two AI-voiced listenings follow: a dialogue by the Hudson River in Hoboken and Grandpa's voice message with a challenge. After the scheme come four exercises that check themselves, among them a quiz on how each -ed ending sounds. To speak, students answer a viewer's comments as Nora in a chat, then open boxes that ask them to tell a journey.

Homework is nine exercises that check themselves: a word match, a sentence quiz, an anagram, a gap-fill, a drag-and-drop, a sort of verbs by their -ed sound, a memory game, a word-order drill and a postcard with the right forms to choose.

Grammar:: past simple · regular verbs · -ed spelling · -ed pronunciation
Topic:: Nellie Bly · Hoboken · travel · road trips · Grandpa's Map · board games

Teaching tips

Clap the syllables of -ed verbs: say walked, played and started while the class claps; only started gets two claps, so students hear when -ed adds a syllable.
Build a timeline from the post: students call out each date and its verb, from sailed on November 14, 1889, to arrived on January 25, 1890, and add visited in between.
Listen for -ed verbs in the riverside dialogue: students raise a hand at each one (started, packed, carried, grabbed, jumped, marked) and say whether it ends in /t/, /d/ or /ɪd/.
Hold a travel-light contest: students say three things they packed for their last trip (I packed a camera, a book and one shirt.), and the class picks the lightest bag, as in the voice message's challenge.

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The whole course: English A2.1 · Then and Now

32 lessons for adults at A2 in simple American English, from the past simple to going to, should and might. Eight units tell stories of journeys, American firsts, food, places, sports, music, neighbors and dreams. Pictures and definitions replace translations, and the practice exercises check themselves.See the course

Unit 1 Amazing journeys
the past simple, regular and irregular verbs, negatives, prepositions of movement
1. Lesson 1 · you're hereAround the world in 72 daysThe past simple of regular verbs
2. Lesson 2The first drive across AmericaIrregular verbs in the past simple
3. Lesson 3Get your kicks on Route 66Past simple negatives with didn't
4. Lesson 4She walked 2,000 miles in sneakersPrepositions of movement
Unit 2 American firsts
was and were, past questions and short answers, ago and in, could for past ability
Unit 3 American food
countable and uncountable nouns, comparatives, ordering food, a few and a little
Unit 4 City or country?
comparatives with more and less, superlatives, as … as, too and enough
Unit 5 Game on
play, go and do with sports, going to, adverbs of manner, reflexive pronouns
Unit 6 Music and nights out
love, enjoy and hate + -ing, the present continuous for plans, suggestions, to for purpose
Unit 7 Neighbors and community
much and many, should, something and everyone, because and so
Unit 8 Plans and dreams
verb + to, the present continuous vs going to, might, when, before and after

Questions about this lesson

What is the past simple?

The past simple is the tense for finished actions at a known time: She arrived in 1890. We walked to the pier yesterday. With regular verbs, it is the base form + -ed, and one form fits every person: I started, he started, they started. Time words such as yesterday, last week and in 1966 often go with it.

How do you form the past tense of regular verbs?

Add -ed to the base form, and use that one form for every person: walk, walked; visit, visited; start, started. So I walked, she walked and they walked are all right, with no -s and no did. Some endings change the spelling first: arrived, carried, stopped. In Around the world in 72 days, an A2 lesson on edio.ai, a table turns She carries her camera every day into the past.

Is the simple past the same as the past simple?

Yes: simple past and past simple name the same tense. American grammar books often say simple past, while British ones tend to say past simple, but the verbs don't change: She traveled with one small bag. We started in Hoboken. Both names cover the same forms: regular verbs add -ed (traveled), and irregular verbs have their own (went, saw).

What are regular verbs?

Regular verbs are verbs that form the past simple with -ed: walk, walked; play, played; explore, explored. Most English verbs are regular, so a new verb usually follows the pattern. Irregular verbs such as go and see have their own past forms, went and saw, and are learned one by one. Every drill in Around the world in 72 days, an edio.ai lesson for A2, sticks to regular verbs.

How do you spell regular verbs in the past simple?

Most regular verbs simply add -ed, but a few endings change the spelling. A final e takes only -d (arrive, arrived); a consonant + y becomes -ied (carry, carried); and a short verb ending in one vowel and one consonant doubles it (stop, stopped; plan, planned). A vowel + y just adds -ed: played, stayed. American English keeps one l in traveled.

How do you pronounce the -ed ending?

The -ed ending has three sounds: /t/, /d/ and /ɪd/. It sounds like /t/ after p, k, s, sh, ch and f sounds (stopped, walked, watched), and like /d/ after other sounds, vowels included (traveled, played, grabbed). Only after t or d does it add a syllable: started, visited, ended. A homework drill in the A2 lesson Around the world in 72 days on edio.ai sorts twelve verbs into the three sounds.

Is it "traveled" or "travelled"?

In American English, it's traveled, with one l; travelled is the British spelling. The same goes for traveling and traveler. American spelling usually doubles a final consonant only when the last syllable is stressed, and travel is stressed on its first: TRAV-el. Short verbs still double, as in stopped and planned. On edio.ai, the A2 lesson Around the world in 72 days lists She travelled around the world among its common mistakes.

Is it "she traveled" or "she did traveled"?

Say she traveled: past statements need no did. The -ed form carries the past by itself: We started our trip in Hoboken. I packed one small bag. Did is for questions and negatives, and there the verb goes back to its base form: Did she travel? She didn't travel. After a past time word, the verb must be past too: In 1889, she traveled, not she travels.

What words do you need to talk about travel?

To talk about travel, you need verbs for going places and words for transport: travel (go to other places, often far away), explore (look around a new place), steamship, pickup truck and trailer, a small house you pull behind a car. Add places on the way, such as a pier, a long walkway from the land into water, and a city's skyline. Both verbs are regular in the past: traveled, explored.

How do I teach the past simple to A2 students?

Begin with regular verbs in a true story, so the -ed form does real work before any rule: She sailed. She visited. She arrived. Then sort the verbs by spelling and by sound, practice them with time words, and leave irregular verbs, negatives and questions for later lessons. The A2 lesson Around the world in 72 days on edio.ai follows that order, from a post about a real trip to the scheme and four drills.

What's a good game for practicing regular past tense verbs?

A sound-sorting race is a good game for regular past tense verbs: players get cards such as jumped, called and needed and race to place each under /t/, /d/ or /ɪd/. For speaking, open-box prompts work well: whoever opens Yesterday: make three sentences with -ed verbs answers aloud, as in I walked to school. I cooked dinner. I watched a movie. This lesson's homework includes the sorting game, with laughed, cleaned and painted.

Are there interactive exercises for the past simple?

Yes: online drills that check every answer at once suit the past simple. Without an account, you can try four parts of the A2 lesson Around the world in 72 days on edio.ai on this page: a travel channel's post about Nellie Bly's trip, a dialogue by the river in Hoboken, a gap-fill that puts eight verbs into the past simple (visited, planned, traveled) and a chat that answers a viewer's comments. The other drills are locked.

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About this lesson

What's inside

Travel vocabulary

Grammar: the past simple of regular verbs

Then and now: one form for every person

Then and now

One form for every person

Spelling: -ed, -d, -ied or a double letter

Three ways to say -ed

No did, and a past time word

Sentences from the trip

Common mistakes

Try the past simple exercises

What's in the lesson

The main objectives of this lesson are to:

Teaching tips

Teach the whole lesson in edio

Start a free trial

Open the lesson

Teach it live or as homework

The whole course: English A2.1 · Then and Now

Unit 1 Amazing journeys

Unit 2 American firsts

Unit 3 American food

Unit 4 City or country?

Unit 5 Game on

Unit 6 Music and nights out

Unit 7 Neighbors and community

Unit 8 Plans and dreams

Questions about this lesson

Teach this lesson with your students