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

brought

forget

forgot

forgotten - course you didn't forget!

choose

chose

chosen

find

found

found

come

came

come

drive

drove

driven

fall

fell

fallen

feel

felt

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

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

slept

lend

lent

and lent

stand

stood

and stood

pay

paid

paid

let

let

and

let

lose

lost

and

lost

sing

sang

sung

meet

met

and met

begin

began

begun

put

put

and

put

read

read

and read

Notice the pronunciation changes but the spelling stays the same.

Read, read, read.

say

said

said

make

made

Course you know that one - it's made.

sell

sold

sold

think

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

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

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!