Irregular Verbs in English – Group 3

Hi. I'm Ronnie. Do you have a problem? I do. [Laughs] I got loads of problems,

but maybe a problem that you have, I can help you with. So, one of the most difficult things about

learning English is how to conjugate the verbs. In English, we have millions... Not millions.

We have a lot of verbs-42-and we need to know, you need to know the present tense,

the simple past tense, and something that's called the past participle.

So, the simple present tense we use for things that we do every day. For example: I eat breakfast,

I go to the bathroom; I am a human. The simple past we use for things that we talk about

in the past: I ate breakfast, I went to the bathroom. Yes. I was a human. The most difficult

one, and the one that frustrates everyone so much is the past participle. Now, instead

of me saying past participle all the time, I'm going to tell you p.p. Woo. It's kind

of like having to go to the bathroom; p.p.

So, what I'm going to do is I'm going to teach you the past simple and the past participles.

But the problem is there are so many of them, and they have very different structures or

styles. If your life was easy, we would just have one or two different ways to conjugate

the verbs, but no. Learning English is going to be difficult for you, but not when I'm

here. I can help you out with this. So, if you are frustrated or you just don't know

how you are going to learn the past participle of irregular verbs: Sit back, relax, and do

some mind mapping. If your verb is a regular verb, so it ends in "ed", you have no worries

because it's going to be simple past, it's going to be "ed", and the past participle

is going to be "ed". So we're not doing that. These are all going to be irregular verbs.

So, what I've done is I've tried very diligently to put these into groups for you to help you

remember them when it comes time for a test. So if you're learning grammar, if you're learning

passive voice, or if you have to do present perfect or past perfect, you have to know

the past participles of the verbs.

So, what I've done is I've tried to split the verbs, the irregular verbs into three

different groupings, because there are so many of them. So, this video is the most difficult-bear

with-and also, the last one in our group. So, if you go to the resources section on

www.engvid.com, we have all of these groups in a list for you to make your learning easier.

What we're going to go over today is group three. You probably have seen the videos I've

done on group one and two. This is the follow-up for group three; brace yourself, the most

difficult. So, let's dive right in.

The first group has one verb change. Sorry, one vowel change. So, if you guys look at

all of these words, we've got an "i" running through them. So, we have: "begin", "drink",

"sing", and "swim". When we change this group to the past tense, the only thing that we

have to change here is we're changing the vowel "i" to an "a". So, "begin" becomes "began".

And then when we make the p.p.-I have to go pee-pee, never ends-we're going to make it

a "u". So, it's going to be: "begin", "began", and "begun". All of this... All of these verbs

in this group follow the exact same pattern. The present tense has an "i", the past tense

has an "a", and the past participle has a "u". You.

So, let's look at the next example: "drink", "drank", "drunk". "i", "a", "u". "Drink, drank, drunk",

it's also a song. The next one we have is-la, la, la, la-"sing". So, if you

follow my pattern, what vowel would I put here? "a". Oh, good answer, it is an "a".

So we're going to say: "sing", "sang", "sung". Now, "sang", "sung" is very similar to Samsung,

so you can remember the electronics' company Samsung. Please give money, Samsung, for mentioning

you. In this... It'll help you remember it. "Sing", "sang", "sung", "sing", "Samsung".

Good. But be careful. It's not "Samsung", it's "sang", "sung". Don't mess that up. Remember

the rule: "i", "a", "u". And the last one in this group is "swim", and of course "swam"

and "swum". Even I get these confused. Ew. "Swim", "swang", "swum", swoo, whoa. So, I

find this rule very useful. You should, too. Group number one is "i", "a", and "u". We're

going forward. We only got three more groups to do in this lesson.

The next one, we're going to change the vowel "o" in the present, the past tense is going

to have an "e", and the past participle is going to have an "o" and an "n" in it. So,

our first example is: "blow", the past tense would be "blew", the exact same pronunciation

as the colour, mm-hmm. And... Oh no. The past participle is "blown". So, we have "o", "e", "o", "n".

So, it's: "blow", "blew", "blown". Ready for the next one.

"Grow" means to age, "grew", and "grown".

"Blew", "blew", "grew". Good. The next one: "know", "knew", "known".

So, where's my green marker? We're going to put an "e" and an "o" and an "n". What about

this one? You do this one. So, we have: "throw". What's going to go here?

"e". Oh, good job. "e", "threw", and the past tense or the past participle:

"thrown". Awesome. So, we have:

"throw", "threw", "thrown". Set two, done. The "o", the "e", the "o", "n".

You ready for set number three? I am. The next one we have in the present tense an "a"

and an "e" vowel together, we're going to change that to an "o" and an "e", and in the

past participle, it's going to be an "o" and a devious little "n" on the back, there. So,

we have: "break", "broke", "broken"; "swear", "swore", "sworn". Do you know what that verb

means: "swear"? Two meanings. The first one is if you say a bad word, like "shit", that

is considered a swear word. So, I can say: "Ronnie swore."

We have another meaning to swear, you might see people in a courtroom:

"I swear to tell the whole truth and nothing but the truth."

Shit.

The second meaning of "swear" is you pledge to be honest. Are you

going to be honest? So: "swear", "swore", "sworn". Like, we have an expression:

"I was sworn to secrecy."

That means I promised not to tell a secret, so "swear" means you promised

to do something or not to do something. The next one with clothes: "wear", "wore", "worn".

"Speak", you might know this, you might know this: "speak", "spoke", "spoken", and you

guys get to do this one: "steal",

"stole", oh, good job, "stole", and then this one we're

going to put "o" and "n". So it's: "steal", "stole", "stolen". Whew. Don't worry, we're

almost finished.

The last one. These ones are fun because they're going to change an "a" to a double "o", to

an "aken". [Laughs] "a", "k", "e", "n". Two of the words are quite similar, too, so it's

a little bit easier. So we have an "a" and an "e", or just if you want to look at the

"a", so the "a" here will change to a double "o" and we drop the "e", so we say:

"mistake", "mistook", "mistaken".

We have... Shake it, shake it, whoa! "Shook", I'm all shook up

- Elvis is in the building. And then we have the past participle of "shaken". You maybe

know this one. Can you do this? "Take", "took", "taken". Woo! All right, so we're going to

put a double "o" here, and an "aken" on the last one.

What we've done today is really quite amazing. My mind is blown,

because learning the past participle and the simple past of verbs is really, really hard work. Up until now, the

only reason or the only way I can suggest to you is just to memorize a list of them.

Here's a list of them, the resources section on engVid, we have a list of these verbs.

This one is group number three. Also, we have group number two and group number one; also

in the video, so check those videos out, group one and group two. And I hope that learning

the past participles and the simple past of irregular verbs becomes easier for you. You've

got the list, you've got a new technique, you can do it.

'Till later, have fun.