This ESL grammar lesson introduces the past tense forms of several common irregular verbs (break, buy, find, fly, hear, know, read, run, speak, teach). Students must memorize the past tense forms of these verbs.
ESL Grammar: Irregular Verbs and Their Past Tense Forms
Irregular verbs do not follow a standard pattern when forming the past tense. Here are the past tense forms of the verbs we will focus on:
- Break→ Broke
- Present: I breakmy toy.
- Past: I brokemy toy yesterday.
- Buy→ Bought
- Present: She buysgroceries.
- Past: She boughtgroceries last week.
- Find→ Found
- Present: They findthe keys.
- Past: They foundthe keys under the couch.
- Fly→ Flew
- Present: He fliesto New York.
- Past: He flewto New York last month.
- Hear→ Heard
- Present: We hearmusic.
- Past: We heardmusic at the party.
- Know→ Knew
- Present: I knowthe answer.
- Past: I knewthe answer in the test.
- Read→ Read(pronounced “red”)
- Present: She readsa book.
- Past: She reada book yesterday.
- Run→ Ran
- Present: They runevery morning.
- Past: They rana marathon last year.
- Speak→ Spoke
- Present: He speaksEnglish.
- Past: He spokeEnglish fluently during the interview.
- Teach→ Taught
- Present: She teachesmath.
- Past: She taughtmath for five years.
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) .
