Why don't the words ''spit'', ''hit'', ''split'', ''wed'', ''wet'

''hurt'', ''beat'' and ''cost'' have past tenses?

"Spat" is a past tense of "spit."

A little suggestion...why not go to your local library and try to find a book on the evolution of English or English linguistics? I think you might actually find answers to all of these questions, rather than posting them incessantly on Antimoon.

Sometimes, you've just got to accept things as they are, d'ye ken?

<<d'ye ken?>>

Random's been scoffing yon porage oats again! ;-)

Of course they have past tenses. "Cost" is the past tense of "cost". "Beat" is the past tense of "beat". "Hurt" is the past tense of "hurt". Etc.

Jim sez:
<< "Beat" is the past tense of "beat">>

Are these two words pronounced the same?

Yes.

I used to pronounce the past tense of beat as in the pronuncaition of the word "bet".

But the past tense of "read"... That's really weird!

"read" is the past tense of "read" but you should pronounce the past tense as "red."