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.
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:
Then, you'll see the past simple tense:
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!
forgotten - course you didn't forget!
bought - I thought you'd know that one!
Now the be verb in the present tense, is am or is or are
And as a past participle,
And..
depending on if you're using British or American English.
have - we did this one before!
and in the past participle, it's
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.
Notice the pronunciation changes but the spelling stays the same.
Course you know that one - it's made.
and this is lie, when you're not telling the truth
But lie can also be when you are flat, like on your bed.
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.
Now, smell is usually a regular verb.
But, in the UK it can be an irregular verb, in British English
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.
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:
put - we spoke about those just before.
The spelling is the same but the pronunciation's different.
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
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!