Irregular English Verbs 👉 Past Participle Form | Common Grammar Mistakes

Lesson Overview

Lesson Summary 

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I created this lesson to help you REVIEW irregular English verb forms. Knowing these different verb forms is crucial to using tenses correctly – especially the perfect tenses!

Learn more about when to use the present perfect and past simple tenses in this video here.

CLICK HERE to read the full lesson transcript.


Video Transcript

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

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!

Infinitive Past Simple Past Participle
become became become
bring brought brought
forget forgot forgotten
choose chose chosen
find found found
come came come
drive drove driven
fall fell fallen
feel felt felt
buy bought bought
fly flew flown
be was/were been
know knew known
get got gotten (American English) / got (British English)
wear wore worn
tear tore torn
have had had
swim swam swum
keep kept kept
go went gone / been (*see note below table)
teach taught taught
sleep slept slept
lend lent lent
stand stood stood
pay paid paid
let let let
lose lost lost
sing sang sung
meet met met
begin began begun
put put put
read read read
say said said
make made made
sell sold sold
think thought thought
drink drank drunk
send sent sent
leave left left
sit sat sat
speak spoke spoken
write wrote written
take took taken
lie lied lied (not telling the truth)
lie lay lain
smell smelled (more common) / smelt (British English) smelled / smelt
give gave given
hear heard heard
tell told told
see saw seen
understand understood understood
do did done

**The main difference between been and gone: 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.

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. 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
  • 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!

Links mentioned in the video

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