How to pronounce irregular verbs in English - CAUGHT, BOUGHT, THOUGHT...

Hello there, my name is Rani and I'm back to teach you some more English.

Today we're going to focus on pronunciation of irregular verbs.

Irregular verbs mean they're not easy verbs that end in -ed.

If they ended in -ed, we would call them regular verbs.

I don't know why, in English, they bother to do this.

I wish they would just have every verb a regular verb.

It would make your learning so much easier, but they've chosen not to.

So I will go through them with you and I will teach you, more importantly, how to actually

say them.

Let's look at the first one.

The first verb is by.

The simple past looks like you should say, "Oh, you get it."

We don't say that, though.

I will teach you the easy way.

There is an easy way.

It's like this.

We pronounce it, "bot," that easy.

Please remember that the spelling must be this way.

If you're writing a test and you write it like this, you will get it wrong.

Pronunciation only is going to sound like "bot."

The next word we have is "catch."

If you can repeat that word, "catch," how do you think we say this word?

I'll give you a hint.

These words will all sound the same ending.

This one will be "caught."

It's actually a hard "c" sound, so we can sound it like a "k."

Whichever you prefer.

Whatever is easier for you to remember, we can either say "caught" or "caught."

Please notice the spelling is also different.

This one is an "a," not an "o."

The next one we have is "fight."

Please repeat, "fight."

And the past of "fight" is "fought."

F-o-t sounds like "fought."

You getting this yet?

This one is kept with an "o" sound with the spelling.

One thing that I do every day is teach.

After I come home from school, I say, "I taught, taught."

And the last one, hopefully you do this every day.

If you think about something, the past is "thought."

This one's a little bit more difficult because you do have the "th" sound.

So I'll just compare these two for you.

This one is "taught."

It's a simple "t," "o-t," so it's "taught."

This one is "thought."

When you say the "th" sound in English, you must stick out your tongue and go "thought."

So let's just review the simple past of these words.

So that you know exactly the pronunciation.

The first one is "bought."

Please repeat, "bought."

Next we have "caught," "caught."

Next up, we have "fought," "fought."

Teachers do this every day, "taught," "taught."

And probably the most difficult one is "thought," "thought."

Don't forget to stick your tongue out for that one.

So I hope this helps you in pronunciation of those nasty, irregular verbs in English.

Please go to engvid.com and you can take a quiz about this little pronunciation lesson.

Thanks for watching, and I'll see you next time.

Bye.

Engvid.com