Learn Past Tense IRREGULAR VERBS the EASY Way!

Hello.

My name is Emma, and today I am going to teach

you how to learn irregular past tense verbs.

So, I'm going to teach you some easy methods and tips on how to do this.

So, first of all, let's talk about what is an irregular past tense verb.

Well, I have here two sentences.

The first one says "yesterday I wanted to travel".

The second sentence says "yesterday I ate the cake".

So, in English, when we're talking about the

past tense, so something that happened in

the past, like "yesterday", "last month", "last year", we need to do something to the

verb.

So, most verbs follow this "ed" rule, which you might have learned before.

"Learned" is an example of this.

For many verbs, we add "ed" to the end to make it a past tense verb.

But not all verbs follow this, unfortunately, in English.

We have these things called irregular verbs.

Irregular verbs are verbs like "ate".

We don't say "he ated the cake".

That would make things really easy, but

unfortunately, English is not the easiest language.

Those of you learning probably know this.

So, you might think, "Why do we sometimes use 'ed' and why do we sometimes have these

verbs that are irregular, like 'ate'?"

Well, the reason...

So, we have this "Why?

Why, Emma?" and we have this sad face.

The reason English is so complicated, it's not

because I created the language; it's because

the old parts of English have these irregular verbs.

So, any verb that's extremely old from the

beginning or the early days of English, they

have...

They're the irregular verbs.

So, for example, "spoke" is the irregular verb of "speak".

We already talked about "ate", which is the

irregular verb of "eat"; "did" is the irregular

past tense verb of "do"; or "sang", that's the irregular past tense of "sing".

So, all of these verbs are very old.

Now, the newer verbs in English are the ones

that are the easy ones because you just add

"ed".

So, for example, "decided", "visited",

"wanted", these are all later verbs in English.

And even when in English we make new verbs, we usually use the "ed".

So, for example, "googled", "I googled my name."

Or even "zoomed", a lot of people use "zoom".

We've turned it into a verb, "zoomed".

"Yesterday, I zoomed my sister."

So, in this video, we're not going to focus on these easy, regular verbs; we're going

to focus on the hard, irregular verbs, and I'm going to teach you how to learn these

verbs.

So, let's get started.

Alright, so, the first part of my method for

learning irregular past tense verbs is to

learn the most common ones first.

So, here are the most common.

These are the most commonly used in English.

There's many irregular verbs.

I recommend you start with the most commonly used ones first and memorize them.

You might already know a lot of these already.

So, for example, the verb "be", here's the present tense, which might be "I am", "he

is", "they are".

If we're talking about the past, we don't use "ed" here; it's irregular.

We can use "was" or "were".

"He was", "they were".

Most of you probably know the "be" verb.

The next one after that is "have".

"Have" in the present form becomes "has" or "have", so "I have", "she has", it depends

on the subject.

If we're talking about "he", "they", "we", "you", it might change the verb, so we have

"have" or "has".

Well, what's the past tense of this verb?

It's "had".

So, if I'm talking about last year, last year I had a lot of fun, I could say.

So, this is an irregular verb; it's irregular because it does not end in "ed".

It's following a different set of rules; it's an irregular past tense verb.

The next most common is "do".

So, here is the present tense, "do" or

"does", and the past tense of this is "did".

"Did you have fun last night?

"Did you go to the concert last week?"

"I did", so we use this for the past tense.

The next most common is "go".

"Go" in the present tense is "go" or "goes", "I go", "he goes".

In the past tense, it's "went", okay?

"Say", you probably know "say" or "says" in the past tense becomes "said", and you

might know all of these already, which is great if you do.

The next one is "get".

In the present tense, it's "get" or "gets".

After that, in the past tense, it's "got".

And then we have "make".

Here it is in the present tense, "made" is the past tense.

So, you might know all of these already, so

if you do, then you learn the next most common

irregular verbs, which are "think".

What's the past tense of "think"?

"Thought", "I thought so".

We have "take".

"Yesterday, I took a test."

"Feel", what's the past tense of "feel"?

This is a hard one for a lot of people, "felt", "I felt that".

And then we have "leave" which is "left", "bring" which is "brought", "buy" which is

"bought", "come" which is "came", and "eat" which is "ate".

So, these are the most important ones to learn.

If you don't know any of these, learn them

first, but once you learn these, you can also

Google, "Hey, Google, what's the 20 most common irregular verbs?"

Or you can Google, "What's the 30 most common irregular verbs?"

So, this is a good way to figure out what

verbs are the most important to learn first.

Now I'm going to teach you how can we memorize this in an easy way.

So, you know, first, figure out what verbs to look for, the most common, and now let's

figure out how to memorize these verbs.

All right, so the first tip is learn the most common irregular past tense verbs.

Another great tip or method is to learn the common patterns of irregular verbs.

When you first learn them, it looks random.

Oh, why is there an "e" here, and an "i" here, and an "o" here?

But really, there are patterns for irregular

verbs, so I'm going to show you some of those

patterns right now.

When you learn the patterns, so here I have

group 1, group 2, group 3, group 4, by learning

the common patterns, it can help you memorize these irregular verbs faster.

The patterns also have past participles, so there's three parts to a pattern.

You have the present tense, you have the simple

present tense, and then you have the past

participle.

So, I'll explain what a past participle is

in a moment when we look at our first group,

but my main point is when you're learning the pattern, also learn past participles.

You will need to know them when you learn the present perfect tense anyway.

So, the first group we're going to look at is a pattern where you'll notice the vowel

changes.

So, the present vowel is different than the past tense vowel, which is different from

the past participle.

So I have here the verb "to sing".

Sing, you know, la-la-la-la-la.

Okay, so right now I just sang.

A minute ago I sang.

So, "sang" is the past tense of "sing".

Notice what changed was just the second letter here.

It went from an "i" to an "a".

Now, if I was using the present perfect, I would need what's called a past participle.

A past participle is the verb form that we use

after "have" and "had" with certain grammar

tenses, specifically the perfect tense.

Or you can also use it with some other tenses, too, but...

Notice here, the past participle is "sung" with a "u", so if I was memorizing this, I

would think "sing-sang-sung", "sing-sang-sung", "sing-sang-sung".

So we have the present "sing", the past "sang", and the past participle "sung".

It's also good to memorize the past participles

because students often confuse the past tense

with the past participle.

So they might say, "Oh, yesterday I sung at a karaoke", but no, "yesterday" means they

want to use the past tense of the correct verb would be "sang".

So it's good to learn these patterns.

Let's look at another example for group one when the vowel changes.

We have "drink".

"Drink" is a very common verb in English.

What about the past?

"Yesterday" or "last week", "last year", we

would say "drank", and so you see the "i" becomes

an "a".

"Yesterday I drank some milk."

Now, the past participle is actually with a "u", just like "sung".

This time it's "drunk".

"I have drunk horse wine before."

I know it's a strange example, but it's true.

So you can use this when you have "have" or "had", but this is the past tense.

Okay, here's another example.

"Swim", "swam", "swum".

"Today I swim.

I swim every Monday."

"Last week I swam."

"I have swum in the Pacific Ocean before."

So "sing, sang, sung", "drink, drank, drunk", "swim, swam, swum".

These are all the same pattern.

We have the "i" in the present, the "a" in

the past, and the "u" as the past participle.

So many irregular verbs follow this pattern.

Now, let's look at another pattern we might see, what I call group two.

Group two is the best.

Okay?

If you're learning English, you will be happy

when you find a group two irregular verb.

Why?

You don't have to do anything.

It's all the same.

"Put, put, put".

Oh, beautiful.

So, I can say - if I'm talking about now,

the present, I can say, "Every Tuesday I put

on makeup."

Now, if I'm talking about the past, so before,

same verb, "Last winter I put on my gloves."

And then we also have "put" for the past participle.

"I have put...

I have put..."

I'm trying to think of a good example for this.

"I have put makeup on a cat before."

That's not true, but just an example.

It's a strange example, I'm sorry, but...

The bottom line is "put, put, put", all the same.

It's the same with "set".

"Set" in the present is the same in the

past, and it's the same as a past participle.

So, group two is the best; you don't have to do anything.

Group three is with "en".

There are a lot of verbs that are irregular where the past participle ends in "en".

Let's look at some examples.

"Break", so "I hope I don't break my toe."

"Broke" is the past tense.

"I broke a finger before", or sorry, "I broke...

Last month I broke my computer."

And then we have "broken", which is the past

participle, and you'll notice it's "en".

Same with "drive".

"Drive" is an important verb.

Many people drive.

So "drive" is for the present, "drove" is for the past, "Last night I drove so far",

and then "driven" is the past participle.

So, again, when you learn a new irregular verb, think about what group is it in.

Now, the hardest group is what I call the unique group, where they follow their own

rules, so it has less patterns.

So for example, "go", "went", "gone", "see",

"saw", "seen", sometimes you'll have some verbs

where they don't follow these patterns, they

don't follow really any patterns; they have

their own pattern.

And those are the hardest because you really have to memorize them.

Okay, so we've covered some different irregular verbs.

I told you learn the most common ones first,

learn the past participle at the same time,

so that way you can, you know, really memorize

"sing", "sang", "sung", "swim", "swam", "swum",

"drink", "drank", "drunk".

It's easier when you say all three and memorize it that way.

So, I've told you about irregular past tense

verbs, the past tense verbs that do not use

"ed".

Now, there's a lot of them, so how do we memorize these?

Well, it's all about practice.

I'm going to give you some ideas now on how to practice these words.

So, one thing many students find helpful is to use flashcards.

So, a flashcard is where on one side you have the present tense, and then when you

flip it, there's the past tense.

Flashcards are great because they help you quiz yourself.

And remember, the way to really learn something is to test yourself frequently.

So, maybe you look at it, and then a minute

later you do it again, and then five minutes

later you try it again, and you keep doing this day after day.

Flashcards are very useful.

I'm using them to learn Chinese, and I'm

finding my Chinese is really improving this way.

So, some people like to use paper flashcards.

That's great.

That's what I do.

Other people like to use apps.

There's many different apps online.

The apps are frequently changing, but you can use a flashcard app as well to practice

this.

So, one of the best ways to learn new words,

especially irregular verbs, is to read stories

with irregular verbs.

So, there's now something called ChatGPT.

There's also other AI platforms you can

use, and they're great for creating stories.

And they're really good for creating stories for English learners.

So, what you can do is you can go to one of these AI sites - so, I like to use ChatGPT,

but there's many different ones - and you can

just ask it, "Write a story, a short story

with irregular past tense verbs, or with verbs in the irregular past tense."

And then you'll get a short story with a lot of these verbs.

By reading these stories, you see the verbs more, and you see them in the right context

or situation.

The more you read them, the more familiar

they become, and it helps with memorization.

So, you know, I love doing this when I learn Chinese.

I read Chinese stories all the time, and I ask ChatGPT to write me Chinese stories.

You can do the same thing with irregular verbs.

Ask AI to write you a short story using an irregular...

Or using irregular English verbs in the past tense.

So, another thing you can do is create a chart.

So, here's an example.

I've written at the top present tense, and then I have my present tense words.

I've written past tense, and I have the past

tense form, and then I have the past participle.

So, I have "eat", "ate", "eaten", "buy", "bought", "bought", "do", "did", "done".

Creating a chart like this is really helpful.

You know, think about the most common

irregular past tense verbs, start with those.

Create a chart and put it somewhere you will see it a lot.

Maybe on your kitchen table, maybe on your mirror in the bathroom.

It's good to put this somewhere where you will see it, and then if you do this every

day you look at it, and you just say the words to yourself.

"Eat", "ate", "eaten", "buy", "bought", "bought", "do", "did", "done".

It almost sounds like music when you have the three of these together, so repeating

it can really help you remember it.

So, repeat it often with your voice, and read it often.

There's a lot of great songs with the irregular past tense.

Beatles, the Beatles I love, they sing slowly, their songs are usually simple.

You can find a lot of great songs like "Yesterday" by the Beatles.

Listen to it and try to hear the different irregular verbs.

You can probably find quite a few in these types of songs.

Finally, it's really important to also try

to use the irregular past tense in sentences

when you are learning them.

So, I showed you the chart.

It's also a good idea to write sentences, too.

So, for example, you can think about your day.

What did you do today?

Okay, I ate breakfast, so "ate" is an irregular past tense verb.

I drove to work, "drove" is the past tense of

"drive", it's a very common irregular verb.

I saw my friend, "saw" is another example.

I made dinner.

So, as you can see, we use them all the time in our everyday routines.

So, try to write about your own routine and

try to use as many irregular past tense verbs

as you can.

You can even share things from your routine in the comments section below.

Tell me about your day and try to use some irregular past tense verbs.

So, I want to say, truly, I am sorry about English because I know it's hard.

There's the regular verbs, there's the irregular verbs.

Why can't it just be easy?

So, I'm sorry English grammar can be complicated,

but when you learn something in English, it's

amazing.

And the good news is irregular verbs, you will hear them again and again and again,

so once you memorize them, your English will really improve.

And remember, the best way to learn something is to test yourself.

So, you can visit www.engvid.com and take my test on irregular verbs.

Make sure that you memorize these ones and practice using them.

You can also subscribe to my channel.

I have many different videos on topics related to

English, like grammar, pronunciation, listening,

writing, and so much more.

So, thank you so much for watching, and until next time, take care.