| Irregular verbs are not as easy to learn as regular | | | | - I have made my bed before! |
| ones, but it's not that hard, either. Students are | | | | Others, however, suffer a change when used in part |
| often scared at the variety of irregular verbs the | | | | participle: |
| English language has, and learning them can be | | | | - I speak with my mother often. |
| challenging - but fun. One thing is true, though: you'll | | | | - I spoke with my mother last Friday. |
| have to learn them by heart. There have been | | | | - I have recently spoken to my mother. |
| systems invented to learn irregular verbs easier by | | | | As with regular verbs, irregular ones are used with |
| ESL programs, but actually the best way is to | | | | different auxiliaries to form tenses. That way, using |
| remember the verbs, by using them, and applying | | | | has or have plus the past participle of a verb will |
| them to different situations. Let's take a look at | | | | form the present perfect tense: |
| some common -and not so common- irregular verbs | | | | - She has taught me a lot about life. |
| in English:be - was/were - beenbecome - became - | | | | Using had plus past participle forms the past perfect |
| becomebegin - began - begunbreak - broke - | | | | tense: |
| brokenbring - brought - broughtbuild - built - builtbuy - | | | | - They had always thought her illness could be |
| bought - boughtcome - came - comecost - cost - | | | | reverted. |
| costcut - cut - cutdo - did - donedrink - drank - | | | | Will is also an auxiliary that forms the future tense. |
| drunkeat - ate - eatenfind - found - foundfly - flew - | | | | Will have plus a past participle will form the future |
| flownget - got - gotten/gotgive - gave - givengo - | | | | perfect tense: |
| went - gonehave - had - hadkeep - kept - keptknow | | | | - Tomorrow will be a nice day. (Simple Future) |
| - knew - knownleave - left - leftmake - made - | | | | - By Friday, I will have finished my assignments |
| mademeet - met - metpay - paid - paidput - put - | | | | (Future Perfect) |
| putread - read - readsay - said - saidsee - saw - | | | | For a full list of irregular verbs and exercises you can |
| seensell - sold - soldsend - sent - sentspeak - spoke - | | | | visit this complete website. To understand fully the |
| spokenspend - spent - spenttake - took - takenteach | | | | way irregular verbs are constructed, the best way is |
| - taught - taughttell - told - toldthink - thought - | | | | to study and use them, so only practice can lead you |
| thought | | | | to success in this sense. So go ahead, use, study and |
| These are very frequent verbs, and if you take a | | | | learn them! |
| close look you'll see that the past participle (third | | | | If you enjoyed this article, please feel free to post it |
| column) often repeats the past form. For example: | | | | to your site or blog and forward this link to your |
| - I make my bed every day. | | | | friends. Have a great day!" |
| - I made my bed yesterday. | | | | Don't forget to visit my ESL blog. |