Most English verbs form the past simple and past participle by adding -ed (walk → walked). Irregular verbs do not follow this pattern and must be memorised individually. They are among the most frequently used verbs in the language.
The past simple is used in active sentences to describe completed past actions. Irregular past forms include: go → went, see → saw, take → took, give → gave, come → came, write → wrote, speak → spoke, think → thought, bring → brought, buy → bought, teach → taught, catch → caught, break → broke, choose → chose, know → knew.
Practice
She ___ the whole novel in one weekend.
Hehis keys in the car and couldn't get back in.
Put the words in the correct order:
Past participles are used in perfect tenses (have/had + pp) and the passive (be + pp). Many irregular verbs have a different past participle from their past simple. Examples: go → gone, see → seen, take → taken, write → written, speak → spoken, do → done, eat → eaten, fall → fallen, choose → chosen, break → broken, drive → driven, give → given, ring → rung.
Practice
Have you ___ to the new manager yet?
All the sandwiches hadby the time we arrived.
Put the words in the correct order:
Some irregular verbs have three completely different forms (base/past simple/past participle): sing/sang/sung, ring/rang/rung, drink/drank/drunk, swim/swam/swum, begin/began/begun, blow/blew/blown, draw/drew/drawn, fly/flew/flown, grow/grew/grown, know/knew/known, throw/threw/thrown, wear/wore/worn.
Practice
She had ___ competitively for years before her injury.
The company hassignificantly since it was founded.
Put the words in the correct order: