How to Learn Past Tense IRREGULAR VERBS... the EASY Way!

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My name is Emma, andtoday I am going to teach

you how to learnirregular past tense verbs.

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

So, first of all, let's talk aboutwhat 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, whenwe're talking about the

past tense, so somethingthat happened in

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

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" tothe end to make it a past tense verb.

But not all verbs followthis, unfortunately, in English.

We have these thingscalled irregular verbs.

Irregular verbsare verbs like "ate".

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

That would makethings really easy, but

unfortunately, English isnot the easiest language.

Those of you learningprobably know this.

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

verbs that areirregular, like 'ate'?"

Well, the reason...

So, we have this "Why?

Why, Emma?" andwe have this sad face.

The reason English isso complicated, it's not

because I created thelanguage; it's because

the old parts of Englishhave these irregular verbs.

So, any verb that'sextremely old from the

beginning or the earlydays of English, they

They're the irregular verbs.

So, for example, "spoke" isthe irregular verb of "speak".

We already talkedabout "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 theseverbs are very old.

Now, the newer verbsin English are the ones

that are the easy onesbecause you just add

"ed".

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

"wanted", these areall later verbs in English.

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

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

Or even "zoomed", alot of people use "zoom".

We've turned it intoa verb, "zoomed".

"Yesterday, I zoomed my sister."

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

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

So, let's get started.

Alright, so, the firstpart of my method for

learning irregularpast tense verbs is to

learn the mostcommon ones first.

So, here are the most common.

These are the mostcommonly used in English.

There's many irregular verbs.

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

You might already knowa lot of these already.

So, for example, the verb "be", here's thepresent 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 probablyknow the "be" verb.

The next oneafter 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 pasttense of this verb?

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'sirregular because it does not end in "ed".

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

The next most common is "do".

So, here is thepresent tense, "do" or

"does", and the pasttense of this is "did".

"Did you have fun last night?

"Did you go to theconcert last week?"

"I did", so we usethis 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 thesealready, which is great if you do.

The next one is "get".

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

After that, in thepast tense, it's "got".

And then we have "make".

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

So, you might knowall of these already, so

if you do, then you learnthe next most common

irregular verbs,which are "think".

What's the pasttense of "think"?

"Thought", "I thought so".

We have "take".

"Yesterday, I took a test."

"Feel", what's thepast tense of "feel"?

This is a hard one for a lotof 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 mostimportant ones to learn.

If you don't know anyof these, learn them

first, but once youlearn these, you can also

Google, "Hey, Google, what's the20 most common irregular verbs?"

Or you can Google, "What's the30 most common irregular verbs?"

So, this is a goodway to figure out what

verbs are the mostimportant to learn first.

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

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

figure out how tomemorize these verbs.

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

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

When you first learnthem, it looks random.

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

But really, there arepatterns for irregular

verbs, so I'm going toshow you some of those

patterns right now.

When you learn thepatterns, so here I have

group 1, group 2, group3, group 4, by learning

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

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

You have the presenttense, you have the simple

present tense, andthen you have the past

So, I'll explain whata past participle is

in a moment when welook at our first group,

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

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

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

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

the past participle.

So I have herethe 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 thepast tense of "sing".

Notice what changed wasjust the second letter here.

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

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

A past participle is theverb form that we use

after "have" and "had"with certain grammar

tenses, specificallythe perfect tense.

Or you can also use it withsome 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 memorizethe past participles

because students oftenconfuse the past tense

with the past participle.

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

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

So it's good tolearn these patterns.

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

We have "drink".

"Drink" is a verycommon verb in English.

What about the past?

"Yesterday" or "lastweek", "last year", we

would say "drank", andso you see the "i" becomes

an "a".

"Yesterday I drank some milk."

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

This time it's "drunk".

"I have drunkhorse wine before."

I know it's a strangeexample, 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".

I swim every Monday."

"Last week I swam."

"I have swum in thePacific Ocean before."

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

These are all the same pattern.

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

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

So many irregularverbs follow this pattern.

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

Group two is the best.

If you're learningEnglish, you will be happy

when you find a grouptwo irregular verb.

You don't have to do anything.

It's all the same.

"Put, put, put".

So, I can say - if I'mtalking about now,

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

Now, if I'm talkingabout the past, so before,

same verb, "Last winterI put on my gloves."

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

"I have put...

I'm trying to think of agood example for this.

"I have put makeupon 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 presentis the same in the

past, and it's the sameas 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 irregularwhere the past participle ends in "en".

Let's look at some examples.

"Break", so "I hope Idon'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, andyou'll notice it's "en".

Same with "drive".

"Drive" is an important verb.

Many people drive.

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

and then "driven"is the past participle.

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

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

rules, so it has less patterns.

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

"saw", "seen", sometimesyou'll have some verbs

where they don't followthese patterns, they

don't follow reallyany patterns; they have

their own pattern.

And those are the hardest becauseyou really have to memorize them.

Okay, so we've coveredsome different irregular verbs.

I told you learn themost common ones first,

learn the past participleat 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 allthree and memorize it that way.

So, I've told you aboutirregular past tense

verbs, the past tenseverbs that do not use

"ed".

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

Well, it's all about practice.

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

So, one thing many studentsfind helpful is to use flashcards.

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

flip it, there's the past tense.

Flashcards are great becausethey help you quiz yourself.

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

So, maybe you lookat it, and then a minute

later you do it again,and then five minutes

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

Flashcards are very useful.

I'm using them tolearn Chinese, and I'm

finding my Chinese isreally improving this way.

So, some people liketo use paper flashcards.

That's what I do.

Other people like to use apps.

There's manydifferent apps online.

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

So, one of the bestways to learn new words,

especially irregularverbs, is to read stories

with irregular verbs.

So, there's nowsomething called ChatGPT.

There's also otherAI platforms you can

use, and they're greatfor creating stories.

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

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

but there's many differentones - and you can

just ask it, "Write astory, a short story

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

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

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

The more you readthem, the more familiar

they become, and ithelps with memorization.

So, you know, I love doingthis when I learn Chinese.

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

You can do the samething with irregular verbs.

Ask AI to write you a shortstory using an irregular...

Or using irregular Englishverbs in the past tense.

So, another thing youcan 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 Ihave the past participle.

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

Creating a chart likethis is really helpful.

You know, thinkabout the most common

irregular past tenseverbs, start with those.

Create a chart and put itsomewhere 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 youwill see it, and then if you do this every

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

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

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

it can really helpyou remember it.

So, repeat it often withyour voice, and read it often.

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

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

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

Listen to it and try to hearthe different irregular verbs.

You can probably find quitea few in these types of songs.

Finally, it's reallyimportant to also try

to use the irregularpast tense in sentences

when you are learning them.

So, I showed you the chart.

It's also a good ideato write sentences, too.

So, for example, youcan 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 verycommon irregular verb.

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

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

So, try to write aboutyour own routine and

try to use as manyirregular past tense verbs

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

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

So, I want to say, truly, I am sorryabout 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 Englishgrammar can be complicated,

but when you learnsomething in English, it's

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

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

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

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

Make sure that you memorizethese ones and practice using them.

You can alsosubscribe to my channel.

I have many differentvideos on topics related to

English, like grammar,pronunciation, listening,

writing, and so much more.

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