Past Tense - Regular and Irregular Verbs / English Pronunciation

Past Tense - Regular and Irregular verbs

Hi everyone!
The simple past tense in English refers to completed actions. We use the simple past with time expressions such as yesterday, a minute ago, last week, in 1930, etc.

The regular verbs in English are those formed by adding "ed" or "d" to the base form of the verb. When verbs end in CONSONANT + "Y", it is necessary to drop the "Y", change it to "I" and add "ed", for example: carry - carried. However, if a verb ends in VOWEL + "Y", you only add "ed" like in the verb "play" which becomes played in the past. Here is a link where you can find a Word document with a list of regular verbs.
 cefire.edu.gva.es/mod/resource/view.php?id...
 
Another important thing you have to consider when learning about regular verbs is the pronunciation of the final "ed". When a verb ends in a "t" or a "d" sound, the final "ed" is pronounced as a separate syllable, for example: start - start-ed, accept - accept-ed, while arrive - arrived  (ə-rīvd′).
 
You also NEED to learn the irregular verbs, here is a link for you to practice:

http://www.englishpage.com/irregularverbs/irregularverbs.html

This link has a list of irregular verbs in alphabetical order, flashcards for study and practice and excersises.

You may also want to try this game. You can either play alone or with a partner.

http://www.quia.com/cb/8111.html

Pronunciation 
It is important to get familiar with the Phonetic Alphabet. You can find it in the Active Disc included at the end of your book.

Here is an excellent free resource where you can check the meaning of words as well as their pronunciation. It will be of great help to start using it:

http://www.thefreedictionary.com/

If you are interested in learning more about the Phonetic Alphabet, try this link which will provide you with more useful information:

http://www.antimoon.com/how/pronunc-soundsipa.htm

Here is a very useful video which explains in an easy and clear way how the English alphabet has different sounds. The title is "Why are phonetics important?"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fhIUePCepL8

Finally, here is a page by the BBC which I think is great, visit it, 

 http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/grammar/pron/

Good luck during this course and don't forget that hard work beats talent, when talent doesn't work hard!