Tag: English irregular verbs

In my previous post I offered a set of materials to help you teach the 10 most frequent irregular verbs in English. Now, there are a couple of activities to teach, or if you are a student to learn, another set of 10 irregular verbs. We give you a set of activities to help you teach the past tense and the past participle of the verbs give, find, think, tell, become, show, leave, feel, put and bring.

Here you will find a video, a worksheet and a game. The video contains a short dictation, Random Repeat method and a simple fill in the gap exercise. In this way, your students will learn and remember the correct form and pronunciation of the past tense and the past participle of the given verbs. They can practise their knowledge using the worksheets below. And they can really enjoy the lesson by playing the Snake game in which they need to use the irregular verbs again.
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This video is called Grammar Point. It is an interactive video where you are given some time to complete the tasks set in this video.

The aim of this video is to help people learn the past tense and the past participle of the verbs give, find, think, tell, become, show, leave, feel, put and bring. In the first part, there is a dictation. You need a piece of paper and something to write with. Listen and write the sentences. At the end of the dictation you will see the correct version on the screen.

In the second part of the video, the Random Repeat method is used. This method was suggested in the book Human Memory by Baddeley. You first listen and just repeat the words, then you hear only the infinitive and your task is to say the past tense and past participle of the verb. You have 4 seconds to do this and then you hear the correct answer.

Then, you see a sentence and your task is to complete the sentence with a correct verb in the correct form. You have 5 seconds for this and then you hear and see the correct answer. Please read the whole sentence aloud to maximise the learning.

Some students find mind maps very useful, while others hate them. Anyway, for those who it might help, here is a simple mind map showing the verbs, the past tenses, the past participles and the meaning of the verbs. It´s up to you if you use it.

It is important to practise the irregular verbs to learn them. The following worksheet contains several pages with exercises to practise the irregular verbs. You can check your answers in the key.

You can check your answers here:

To reward my students, I use video games. You can try it with the following Snake game. Once the students finish the worksheets, display the following game on the IWB. Students use the keyboard to control the snake. Whenever they eat an egg, they have to complete the sentence with an irregular verb in the correct form.

If you cannot connect to the internet, then you can use the desktop version of the programme.
Desktop – Windows 32 bits Desktop – Windows 64 bits

You can find some interesting ideas on teaching irregular verbs at British Council site.
Did you like the post? Do you find it useful? Have you found a mistake here? Please, let us know and comment!!! Thank you.

Recently I published a post on irregular verbs which I am really proud of. In this post, there is an app which helps students learn the past tense of the 52 most frequent irregular verbs in English. Using the app, over 80% of my students managed to learn all the past tenses of the verbs. This is a result I had never achieved before.

Even though the results are astonishing, I noticed three problems. First, students didn´t learn the correct pronunciation using the app. Second, students didn´t know the past participle of the verbs. And third, they could not use the the verbs in context.

That is why I decided to create a series of posts where I will offer a set of materials to help my students learn all these things. In this post, you will find a video called Grammar Point, where you can learn the past tense and past participle of the 10 most common verbs in English. Then there is a worksheet to help you practise the verbs.

This video is called Grammar Point. It is an interactive video, where you are given some time to answer the tasks given in this video.

The aim of this video is to help you learn the past tense and the past participle of the verbs be, have, say, make, go, take, come, see, know and get. In the first part, we use the Random Repeat method, which is suggested in the book Human Memory by Baddeley. You first listen and just repeat the words, then you hear only the infinitive and your task is to say the past tense and past participle of the verb. You have 4 seconds to do this and then you hear the correct answer.

In the second part of the video, you see a sentence and your task is to complete the sentence with a correct verb in the correct form. You have 5 seconds for this and then you hear and see the correct answer.

It is important to practise the irregular verbs to learn them. The following worksheet contains several pages with tasks to practise the irregular verbs. You can check your answers in the key.

You can check your answers here:

You can find some interesting ideas on teaching irregular verbs at British Council site.
Did you like the post? Do you find it useful? Have you found a mistake here? Please, let us know and comment!!! Thank you.

I can see what you think. Irregular verbs again? You must be joking!!!

I know. I have already published many posts on irregular verbs. For example:

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1. Irregular verbs with Fluency MC
2. Irregular verbs rhymes
3. Irregular verbs straightforward

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But let´s be honest. None of them proved to be the miracle solution which would make my students learn all the verbs.

In fact, after all those years of teaching, I have come to a conclusion that there is just one way to ensure that students learn something. They have to LEARN it. I, as a teacher, can motivate, explain and navigate, but only the students can learn.

And that is why I decided to write this post. Here, I would like to share with you a simple vocabulary trainer which will help your students learn the past tense of 50 irregular verbs in English. If they learn these fifty (in fact there are 52, but fifty sounds so much better 🙂 ) they will understand 87% of all occurrences of all irregular verbs in English.

To know the irregular verbs, students need to learn the following. They need to memorize the meaning of the verb, the infinitive and the past tense of each verb. The easiest and quickest known way to do this are word lists and flashcards. If you doubt my words, have a look at anything written by Paul Nation.

However, as we live in the twenty-first century, paper is not something that our student would be fond of. Especially teenagers seem to be allergic to it. But they never fail to have their mobile on them. Thus, if we could get into their mobiles, they might start learning.

Thinking along these lines I decided to make a mobile app that would work a bit like the flashcards, and which would provide the meaning, the infinitive and the past tense of the verb. Moreover, if the students finish the game, they will meet each verb between six and eighteen times which should ensure they remember them.

You can see the app below:

Learn 50 Irregular verbs – full screen

And you can download the app here:
Learn 50 irregular verbs – App store Irregular verbs past tense – Italian version

As you can see, the application is perfect for Czech students but not of much use for anyone else. That is why I would like to ask you for help. Could you translate the past tense of the 50 irregular verbs and send them to me? If you do, I will publish the app place a link here and your students will be able to use this app too.

The app will be free and there will be a web version too.
You can download the word file here.

Irregular verbs past tense

Please, send the resulting file to my email rotreklzdenek@gmail.com. Thanks.

Irregular verbs in English are very important for students to learn. These verbs belong among the most frequent words in English and if you want to speak about your experience you cannot do without them. Therefore it is extremely important to give a lot of time to teaching and learning these verbs.

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To make the learning easier, teachers should offer interesting and fun activities. At www.engames.eu you can find a lot of activities to teach the irregular verbs. For example:

1. Irregular verbs with Fluency MC
2. Irregular verbs rhymes
3. Irregular verbs straightforward

All of the activities above will make teaching and learning the irregular verbs easier.

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I have already published many activities but this time I come with something new.A board game. The game is called Catch me!(if you can). The rules are simple and the preparation time is low. The game is fun and students have to produce all the irregular verbs.

To play this game, you need to print the game and the key for each group of students.

Moreover, you need the key:
Irregular verbs board game – key

And you can print the game from the pdf file.
Irregular verbs – board game This game is for up to five players. To play the game, each student needs a counter. Each group needs the game and a key.

Each player places their counter on one of the coloured squares. If there are just two players they place their counters on the pink squares. If there are three players they place their counters on the blue squares and when there are 4 players, they place their counters on the blue squares. If there are five players, one of the players is a referee.

Students decide who will start. The last player takes the key and serves as a referee for the first move.

The player one moves counterclockwise and he/she has to say the past tense and the past participle of the verb in the square in front of him. If he or she does this correctly (the referee decides), he/she moves to this square. The player goes on like this till he/she makes a mistake. Once they make a mistake, the referee tells the player the correct answers and the player stops on the square in front of the square with the verb he/she did not know.

Player one now takes the key and player two tries to move on in the same way. Players take turns after they make a mistake.
The aim of the game is to catch the others. Once a player gets to a square someone is standing on, they catch the player and take them out of the game.
You can change the aim and say that the winner is the student who returns to the square where they started first.

You can find more interesting activities at British Council site.

And of course there is the wonderful song by my friend Jason.

Irregular verbs are probably the most important verbs in English. There are quite a lot of them and they are very common. However, for many ESL and EFL students they are very difficult to learn.

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I have already prepared many activities to teach the irregular verbs to my students. There are irregular verbs from the rap song by Fluency MC, there are several stories to learn the verbs in context and there are many infographics to make the learning a bit easier.
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[showmyads] Having tried all of these, I have to say that the most effective way of teaching irregular verbs in English is the SNOWBALL method. This method does not promise to teach you 100 verbs in 10 minutes. You have to study the verbs for 10 days in a row to learn these, but then I can guarantee that you will remember more than 90% of these verbs. So why don´t you try it for yourself?

The Snowball method is quite simple. You have to work for 10 days in a row. On the first day, the computer teaches you 12 verbs. On the second day, the computer gives you the 12 verbs from the previous day and it adds 12 new verbs. It goes on like this till the day six. Each day there are 12 new verbs and all the verbs from the previous days are repeated. On day 7, no new verbs are added and the 12 verbs from day 1 vanish. In this way, on days 7 to 10, no new verbs are added, and the oldest verbs are deleted. Thus, each verb is repeated at least 6 times.

Moreover, if you make a mistake, the verb is repeated again until you get it right or until you make 3 mistakes.

In the following Snowballs, these verbs are taught:

Once you have gone through the verbs, do the Snowball 1. Your task is to write the infinitive and the past tense of the verb in the picture. Please, use a comma and a space after the infinitive (e.g. draw, drew).
Do Snowball 2 the next day. Then do Snowballs 3-10 one each day.

Snowball 1 – full screen Snowball 2 – full screen Snowball 3 – full screen Snowball 4 – full screen Snowball 5 – full screen ADVERT:
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After teaching for fifteen years, it seems that it does not matter how much and well the teacher teaches, it is the student who must learn. I have already published many methods of teaching irregular verbs. There are posts on teaching irregular verbs with a rap song, there are posts with many games and stories where the irregular verbs are used in context. And the result? My students do not know the irregular verbs! If the students do not learn the verbs, they do not know them.
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[showmyads] This of course does not mean that we should stop making our lessons as interesting as possible. No! It means that we should give students a chance to learn the verbs in an effective way themselves. That was why I started to learn another foreign language. And I found out that the best method to learn new vocabulary was the one which I call SNOWBALL.

Snowball is a simple piece of software which asks me to translate a word. If I get the word right, it disappears, if not, it gets repeated once or twice after a while. The following day, the programme asks me to translate the words from the previous day and adds 20 more words to learn. It goes on like this till day 5 when I have to translate 100 words. On day 6, the software offers the same 100 words again. But on day 7, I have to translate just 80 words as the oldest 20 disappear. In this way, the words disappear and on the tenth day I translate just 20 words.

This means that each word gets repeated at least six times and if the student does not know it, it gets repeated more frequently.

And I used this method to teach the irregular verbs. There are 100 most frequent irregular verbs in English and if you do one snowball every day, each irregular verb will get repeated at least 6 times.

As the answers are evaluated by a computer, DO NOT USE CAPITAL letters and divide the words with a comma (no pause after the comma).

Snowball 1 Snowball 2 Snowball 3 Snowball 4 Snowball 5

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Snowball 6 Snowball 7 Snowball 8 Snowball 9 Snowball 10

This is the first post in a series on irregular verbs. It is called irregular verbs worksheets because in these posts I am going to publish worksheets in which your students can practise irregular verbs. There will be 10 irregular verbs each time and at least four exercises to practise them. Moreover, there will be an interactive version of the worksheets, so your students can practise at home too.
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[showmyads] In this post your students can learn the past tenses and past participles of the verbs: be, make, drink, have, sing, write, give, read, run and sleep. In the worksheet there are seven exercises to practise the verbs: three crosswords and four fill in the blank exercises.

The worksheet starts with a simple infographic.

If you use this material in a class, first present the irregular verbs using the infographic. Present the verbs and ask the students to translate the verbs.

Print the following worksheet for each student. (Use a duplex print to save paper).

Irregular verbs worksheet 1 ADVERT:
[showmyadsa] As I write above there are seven exercises. On the first page, there are crosswords which students should complete by writing the past tense and past participle of the verbs.

Exercises 4 and 5 are simple fill in the blanks exercises. Students should use either the past participles or past tenses of the verbs they learnt.

Exercises 6 and 7 are fill in the blanks exercise again. But this time the students complete questions and once they finish, they could use the questions for speaking. They work in small groups and ask and answer the questions. In smaller print there are additional questions students should ask to make the conversation longer and give students more opportunities to use the target language.

The following quiz can help your students practise the irregular verbs at home. The quiz consists of two parts. In the first part, students should complete the sentences with the past tenses of the ten verbs. In the second part, students have to complete the sentences with the past participles of the ten verbs. The students will be rewarded with a game after each part of the quiz they pass. The quiz is in HTML5, so it will play on all desktops and mobile devices.

Irregular verbs quiz

Irregular verbs in English are forever. No matter how you teach them, the students resist. I have already designed about twelve different ways to teach irregular verbs and my students still struggle. I have tried to teach the verbs in context, through rhymes, straightforward and in songs but to no avail. However, the last method, using picture rhymes was quite successful, so here I come with another set of 18 irregular verbs.

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In this post there is the infographic with all the verbs, a simple worksheet and two games to practise the irregular verbs in English. I hope you find this activity useful.

Go through the infographic with your students. Read the words aloud and explain that the words in the pictures rhyme with the past tenses and the past participles.

Give your students time to study the words (about 4 minutes should be enough). Now hand out the second page of the worksheet and ask the students to write the past tenses and past participles of the verbs using the picture clues.

Irregular verbs in picture rhymes – worksheet The first game is called Penalty Shootout. In this game you should choose the correct past tense and past participle of each verb and then try to score a goal. Good luck.
As the game is in Flash, it will only play on desktop computers.

Irregular verbs in picture rhymes – Penalty shootout

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The second game is called Fling the Teacher. To win the game, you have to answer all the questions by choosing the correct forms of the given verb. If you answer all the questions correctly you will fling your teacher. (But I am sure, that he/she will not mind as long as you know all the irregular verbs 🙂 ). The game is in Flash and it will only play on desktop computers.

Irregular verbs in picture rhymes – Fling the teacher

1. Irregular verbs again
2. Irregular verbs again 2
3. Irregular verbs – third time lucky?
4. Irregular verbs in context 1
5. Irregular verbs straightforward
6. Irregular verbs straightforward #2
7. Irregular verbs straightforward #3
8. Teach 9 irregular verbs in one lesson
9. Irregular verbs in context – Scream
10. Irregular verbs in context – Teacher story

You can see a wonderful video by Fluency MC here:

All the pedagogy books tell you that pictures are much more memorable than words. There is even this saying “A picture is worth thousand words”. So why don’t we use this fact and use pictures for teaching for example irregular verbs?

Unfortunately, things are not that easy. In fact, the research shows that it is more difficult to learn from a pictionary than from a simple word list. However, the research as well showed that pictures can help you remember the words if they are used as a support.

In this post I come up with an original way of presenting irregular verbs in English using pictures. It is not a pictionary, but the pictures just serve as a way of supporting your memory in remembering the past tense and the past participle. Moreover, there are two games, a worksheet and an online quiz to practise what the students learn.

Print the following infographic and explain that students should have a look at the pictures and find words for the pictures which rhyme with the form of the irregular verb above it. For example: sent – ant, paid – eight, went – vent etc.
Put simply, the pictures do not represent the irregular verbs, they rhyme with them.
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Check the rhymes with the students and ask them to memorise them for two minutes. Then hand out the second page from the file and ask them to complete the tables with past tense and past participle of the verbs.

Irregular verbs in pictures – pdf file

The last page of the hand out contains two simple exercises: In the first one students should complete the table and in the second, they use the past tenses of the verbs from the table and complete the sentences.

The first game is called Penalty Shootout. In this game you should choose the correct past tense and past participle of each verb and then try to score a goal. Good luck.
As the game is in Flash, it will only play on desktop computers.

Irregular verbs in pictures – Penalty

The second game is in Flash and will play only on desktop computers. It is called On Target, and your task is to choose the correct option and then shoot all the bad cows and ducks. You can shoot one of the bottles on the wall to get a bonus. Enjoy.

Irregular verbs in pictures – On Target

The following quiz can help your students practise the irregular verbs either at school or at home. In the quiz you have to choose the correct verb for each sentence. The students will be rewarded with a game if they pass. The quiz is in HTML5, so it will play on all desktops and mobile devices.
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[showmyads] Irregular verbs in pictures – quiz

Print the pdf file.

Hand out the first page.

Students find the rhymes.

Check the answers.

Hand out page two.

Students complete the tables.

Play the game Penalty.

Play the game On Target.

Hand out page three.

Students complete exercise 1.

They check their answers on page one.

Students complete exercise 2.

Check their answers.

You can find some interesting materials to teach irregular verbs at British Council site.

Here is a great video on irregular verbs by my friend Fluency MC.

In this post, I offer a set of activities for teaching 9 English irregular verbs. I have tested the sequence in class several times, and I have tried to improve it to get even better results. Right now I feel that the following sequence will ensure that students will learn the past tense of at least seven of these verbs.
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[showmyads] The sequence contains the following steps: a vocabulary activity, reading and comprehension questions, a listening drill, a Grammar Up activity, a crossword, a wordsearch, a word order activity and a speaking exercise.
Let’s start.

First ask your students to translate the following list of words into their mother tongue. If you teach an international group of students, ask them to use their own dictionaries and elicit or demonstrate the meaning of the words.

Ask the students to read the following story and answer the comprehension questions below.

Read the text and put the actions into the order in which they happened:
Yesterday was a bad day. First I forgot to do my homework and my teacher was angry. I left school at 2 o´clock and I thought that everything was OK. I went home by tram and someone stole my money. Then I lost my keys and I couldn´t get into my house. So I went out, but I fell and broke my leg. In the evening I ate a bad sausage and then I had a stomach ache. It was a really bad day.

Put the actions into the correct order
go out
have stomach ache
forget homework
leave school
lose keys
eat a bad sausage
someone steals his money
teacher be angry
cannot get into house
break leg
fall
go home

Watch the following video and then listen and repeat the sentences.

Here is an unusual exercise for your students. It is called Grammar Up. The students should read the text and add the missing grammar to it. All the verbs are CAPITALISED, and students should put them into the past tense. Instead of articles asterisks * are used, and all the prepositions are replaced with dashes -.

Yesterday BE * bad day. First I FORGET – do my homework and my teacher BE angry. I LEAVE school – 2 o´clock and I THINK that everything BE OK. I GO home – tram and someone STEAL my money. Then I LOSE my keys and I CANNOT get into my house. So I GO out, but I FALL and BREAK my leg. – * evening I EAT * bad sausage and then I HAVE * stomach ache. It BE * really bad day.

The next task is very popular with students. They should solve the crossword using the past tense of the missing verbs.

In the following exercise students should put the parts in bold into the correct order.

The following task is quite simple. Students should find the past tenses of the verbs in the wordsearch.
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In the last task of the series students should retell the story, using the clues. They have to tell the story in the past tense.

7. Retell the story. Use the clues below:

Forget homework
leave school
go home
steal money
lose keys
cannot get into my house
go out
fall
break leg
eat sausage
have stomach ache
If you would like to have all the activities in one worksheet, you can download the pdf worksheet here.

English irregular verbs in context

By now students should be able to remember the nine irregular verbs from this story. If you have time you should play the video again and ask your students to repeat the sentences. I believe that a good way to consolidate your students’ the knowledge of the English irregular verbs is to play the video once per class for a number of classes.

English irregular verbs in context