This ESL grammar lesson introduces the past tense forms of several common irregular verbs (do, drink, eat, give, have, make, say, see, sit, take, write). Students must memorize the past tense forms of these verbs.
ESL Grammar: Irregular Verbs and Their Past Tense Forms
Unlike regular verbs, irregular verbs do not follow a standard pattern when forming the past tense. Here are the past tense forms of the irregular verbs we will focus on:
- Do→ Did
- Present: I domy homework.
- Past: I didmy homework yesterday.
- Drink→ Drank
- Present: She drinkswater every day.
- Past: She drankwater after the run.
- Eat→ Ate
- Present: They eatbreakfast at 8 AM.
- Past: They atebreakfast an hour ago.
- Give→ Gave
- Present: He givesme advice.
- Past: He gaveme advice last week.
- Have→ Had
- Present: We havea meeting today.
- Past: We hada meeting yesterday.
- Make→ Made
- Present: She makesdelicious cookies.
- Past: She madedelicious cookies last night.
- Say→ Said
- Present: He saysit’s a good idea.
- Past: He saidit was a good idea.
- See→ Saw
- Present: I seea bird in the tree.
- Past: I sawa bird in the tree this morning.
- Sit→ Sat
- Present: They siton the bench.
- Past: They saton the bench yesterday.
- Take→ Took
- Present: She takesa picture.
- Past: She tooka picture of the sunset.
- Write→ Wrote
- Present: I writean email.
- Past: I wrotean email last night.
The English grammar lesson below introduces several irregular past tense verbs in a clear and simple manner that is easy for beginner English learners to understand. Our series of ESL grammar lessons on subjects and verbs introduce these concepts and reinforce them through helpful and instructive exercises.
This lesson is available for free download, and you can download many more English grammar lessons focusing on basic English tenses (present tense, present continuous tense, past tense, future tense) in our comprehensive, beginner-level ESL grammar textbook Great, Great Grammar! (Book 2: Tenses) .
