Forum

How to use and remember English irregular verbs

Irregular verbs are essential in English, but they can be tricky to master because they don’t follow the standard rules for forming past and past participle forms.
Learning these verbs will help you sound more natural and fluent when talking about the past.



What are irregular verbs?
Irregular verbs are verbs that do not follow the regular pattern of adding "-ed" to form the past tense and past participle.
Instead, their forms vary and must be memorized.
For example:
- Go → Went → Gone
- See → Saw → Seen
- Eat → Ate → Eaten

Why are irregular verbs important?
Irregular verbs are commonly used in everyday English. Mastering them is essential for:
- Talking about the past.
- Understanding native speakers.
- Writing correctly in formal and informal contexts.

Common irregular verbs and their forms
Here are some commonly used irregular verbs:

1. Go:
  - Base: go
  - Past: went
  - Past participle: gone
  - Examples:
    - I go to school every day.
    - Yesterday, I went to the park.
    - She has gone to the store.

2. See:
  - Base: see
  - Past: saw
  - Past participle: seen
  - Examples:
    - I see the mountains from here.
    - I saw a movie last night.
    - Have you seen my keys?

3. Eat:
  - Base: eat
  - Past: ate
  - Past participle: eaten
  - Examples:
    - I eat breakfast at 8 a.m.
    - Yesterday, I ate pizza for lunch.
    - She has eaten all the cookies.

4. Take:
  - Base: take
  - Past: took
  - Past participle: taken
  - Examples:
    - I take the bus to work every morning.
    - He took my advice and applied for the job.
    - The photo was taken by a professional.

5. Write:
  - Base: write
  - Past: wrote
  - Past participle: written
  - Examples:
    - I write emails every day.
    - She wrote a letter to her friend.
    - This book was written by a famous author.


Tips for learning irregular verbs
1. Practice with Flashcards
  Create flashcards with the base, past, and past participle forms.

2. Group by patterns
  Many irregular verbs follow similar patterns. For example:
  - Begin → Began → Begun
  - Sing → Sang → Sung
  - Drink → Drank → Drunk

3. Use in sentences
  Practice creating sentences with each form of the verb.

4. Learn the most common verbs first
  Start with the verbs you use most often in daily conversations.

Practice exercises
1. Fill in the blanks with the correct form of the irregular verb:
  - Yesterday, I ___ (go) to the park.
  - She has ___ (write) a beautiful poem.
  - They ___ (eat) dinner an hour ago.

2. Rewrite these sentences in the past tense:
  - I take the train to work.
  - We see the sunrise every morning.

3. Create three sentences using the past participle form of any irregular verb.

A Quick challenge
Write a short paragraph about what you did last weekend using at least five irregular verbs.
For example:
- Last weekend, I went to the beach. I saw dolphins and ate delicious seafood. Later, Iwrote postcards to my friends and took photos of the sunset.

By mastering irregular verbs, you’ll be able to express yourself clearly and naturally when talking about the past.
Keep practicing, and you’ll see great improvement!

Use our online Quizzes and learn how to construct sentences.
English Puzzle:

Select "Irregular Verbs" in the grammar dropdown

https://fluencyonlife.com/english-fill-in-gaps-quizzes/

Practice speaking by listening and engaging in Wordly topics.
World Topics In English:

https://fluencyonlife.com/english-world-topics-with-questions-and-audio/