Hello, I’m Emma from mmmEnglish!
My students are always complaining about irregular English verbs.
How can I learn them? What are the rules?! !
I’m not going to lie, they are tough!
Be, do, have, go, come, say, take, get, make, see
These are all really common English verbs! And… they're all irregular verbs!
So when they change into the past simple tense or the present perfect tense, the verb changes quite a lot.
But you already know this.
There are fewer irregular verbs than there are regular verbs.
But these irregular verbs are very, very common verbs.
They're used more often than other regular verbs. So if you’ve been telling yourself that you don't need to
worry about irregular verbs... Get your head out of the clouds! Stop dreaming!
You need to learn how to use these important English verbs … Automatically.
In this lesson, I’m going to test your knowledge of past tense irregular verbs,
to train you to think of them instantly!
So, get ready! You need to be thinking quickly! Pay attention.
On the screen, you’ll see a verb appear in the present tense:
eat
Then, you'll see the past simple tense:
ate
And the past participle:
eaten
But this is a speed test! So you need to try and beat me to it! Answer, out loud before I do and then….
You can tell your friends that you beat your teacher in an irregular verb test!
Ready? Let's get started!
become
became
become
bring
brought
forget
forgot
forgotten - course you didn't forget!
choose
chose
chosen
find
found
come
came
come
drive
drove
driven
fall
fell
fallen
feel
felt
buy
bought
bought - I thought you'd know that one!
fly
flew
flown
be
Now the be verb in the present tense, is am or is or are
In the past simple tense,
it's was or were
And as a past participle,
it's
being
Nice one!
know
knew
known
get
got
And..
it could be got or gotten -
depending on if you're using British or American English.
wear
wore
worn
tear
tore
torn
have - we did this one before!
had
and had
swim
In the past tense, swam
In the past participle,
swum
keep
kept
go
And the past simple is went
and in the past participle, it's
gone or been
That could be a little tricky to explain but you use "been" and "gone" for different reasons.
If you go somewhere else, to another country, to a friend's house,
then you have gone from the original place - maybe your house.
But if you have been, then you have gone but you've also come back to the original place.
That's the main difference between been and gone.
teach
taught
and taught
sleep
slept
lend
lent
and lent
stand
stood
and stood
pay
paid
let
and
let
lose
lost
and
lost
sing
sang
sung
meet
met
and met
begin
began
begun
put
and
put
read
and read
Notice the pronunciation changes but the spelling stays the same.
Read, read, read.
say
said
make
made
Course you know that one - it's made.
sell
sold
think
thought
I thought it was right!
Have you thought about that?
thought
drink
drank
drunk
send
sent
and sent
leave
left
and left
sit
sat
speak
spoke
spoken
write
wrote
and written
take
took
and taken
lie
and this is lie, when you're not telling the truth
becomes lied
and
lied
But lie can also be when you are flat, like on your bed.
And it becomes lay
and lain
Now that's not very common to use the past participle form of lay.
But, it's worth knowing the difference. There are two verbs that are very similar.
smell
Now, smell is usually a regular verb.
smelled
But, in the UK it can be an irregular verb, in British English
smelt, smelt
Just be careful you might see it written in a couple of different ways.
But, the most common way is smelled.
And the past participle form is smelled.
give
gave
given
hear
heard
and
heard
tell
told
and told
see
saw
seen
understand
understood
do
did
done
Phew! How did you go?
I’m sure there were quite a few that you know and that you got right!
But there were probably a few that tested your memory. Maybe you haven’t used them in a little while!
So it's a good idea to jog your memory. But don't worry about it if you didn't get them all right!
Use this video to test and build your knowledge of these verbs. Go back to the start of the video and practise
again and again and again, until you have them all memorised!
Which irregular verbs do you find most difficult to use and remember?
Share them in the comments under this video! And don't forget that there are a bunch
of irregular verbs that are only irregular because they don’t actually change in different tenses!
They're always the same - there's only one form. For example:
bet
cut
hit
hurt
let
put - we spoke about those just before.
quit
read and read
The spelling is the same but the pronunciation's different.
set
shut
and spread
For those of you who are feeling up for the challenge…. Then download this worksheet up here
to practise using these verbs in different tenses!
Well, that’s it for this mini training lesson! I’m sure that you must feel great about reviewing and
practising how to use these verbs in English, so that you can speak more fluently, confidently
and automatically in English!
Now, check out this extra training that I prepared about the present perfect tense
and practise using the past participle form in this tense.
There's also another playlist right here with more mmmEnglish lessons!
Bye for now, I'll see you in the next lesson!