Home

I was born * in a cradle * of love
I had two brothers who beat me up
When I was seven years old I had a friend named Tom
And when we were together, I didn’t want to go home

When I was fifteen, I was very confused
I made a bad habit out of breaking the rules
The kitchen window was my door to the night
And when I got caught *, they made me stay home

I was twenty years old when I met you
And as soon I as saw you, I knew what I had to do
I still remember the way you looked
And how I wanted to tell you “I want to take you home”

I’m twenty-six and I still love you
But as far as the world goes, I still don’t have a clue *
What it’s for or what its about
But until I find out, I’ll just call it home

* Past simple

Regular verbs
infinitive + -ed

Irregular verbs
(you need to study them)

to look => looked
to want => wanted
to turn => turned
to work => worked
to watch => watched
to listen => listened
…

to be => was/were
to have => had
to go => went
to beat => beat
to make => made
to meet => met
to see => saw
to give => gave
… (here’s a list)

Note that, contrary to the present, the conjugation of the past simple is always the same –
except for “to be”:

To work (present)

To work (past)

To be (past)

To make (past)

I work
you work
he/she works
we work
they work

I worked
you worked
he/she worked
we worked
they worked

I was
you were
he/she was
we were
they were

I made
you made
he/she made
we made
they made

Structure:
+ I wanted to go home.
– I didn’t want to go home. (subject + didn’t + bare infinitive)
? Did you want to go home? (did + subject + bare infinitive)

Pronunciation:

After the sounds* /t/ and /d/
=> -ed = /id/

After the sounds /p/, /f/, /s/, /sh/, /k/
=> -ed = /t/

After any other sounds
=> -ed = /d/

want /want/ =>
wanted /WAN tid/

paint /peynt/ =>
painted /PEYN tid/

need /ni:d/ =>
needed /NI: did/

decide /di SAID/ =>
decided /di SAI did/

tap /tap/ =>
tapped /tapt/

laugh /la:f/ =>
laughed /la:ft/

miss /mis/ =>
missed /mist/

wash /wash/ =>
washed /washt/

park /pa:rk/ =>
parked /pa:rkt/

Turn /tə:rn/ =>
turned /tə:rnd/

travel /TRA vəl/ =>
travelled /TRA vəld/

listen /LI sən/ =>
listened /LI sənd/

receive /ri SI:V/ =>
received /ri SI:VD/

* The sounds you hear, not the letters you see. For instance, ‘laugh’ is pronounced /la:f/, the last sound you hear is /f/ => + /t/ => laughed = /la:ft/.

Common mistakes:
wanted /wanttt/ => NO NO!! /WAN tid/
needed /ni:ddd/ => NO NO!! /NI: did/
received /ri SI vid/ => NO NO!! /ri SI:VD/
worked /WəR kid/ => NO NO!! /wə:rkt/

K’s Choice is a Belgian band that became famous in the 1990s with Not an addict, Everything for free and Believe.