irregular verbs eat ate eaten
Eat, Ate, Eaten
Regular Verbs
Verbs in English have three forms: the base form (or infivnitive without “to”), the past simple, and the past participle. For convenience, we can call them “verb-1”, “verb-2”, and “verb-3”.
With regular verbs, the past simple and past participles are formed by adding -d or -ed, or -ied (in place of most y endings) to the end of the base form.
Most English verbs are regular.
Irregular verbs do not follow this rule.
Irregular Verbs
1. One kind of irregular verb changes in the past tense and then keeps that same form in the past participle. Examples include feed, fed, fed; and win, won, won.
2. Another kind adds an -n or -en to the base form or to the past tense form to make the past participle. Examples include know, knew, known; and speak, spoke, spoken.
3. A few verbs have irregular changes in spelling for each principal part, as in fly, flew, flown.
4. Still others use the same form for all principal parts. They include cost, cut, set, and shut. These verbs are called invariables.
5. Some irregular verbs shows a change of vowel in both the past tense and past participle: begin, began, begun; ring, rang, rung; swim, swam, swum.
Through usage, many verbs of this type are gradually changing into regular verbs with -ed endings. For example, the verb strive has the irregular forms strive, strove, striven and also has the regular forms strive, strived, strived.
Second Category
In this lesson, we go over the second category.
Beat, Beat, Beaten
1. beat, beat, beaten
Max’s Restaurant has beaten the competition. How did they do it?
2. bite, bit, bitten
I’ve been bitten by a snake! (or spider, or dog). What should I do?
3. blow, blew, blown
Thakin had a birthday party yesterday. What did he do?
4. break, broke, broken
Now David is going to have seven years bad luck. Why? Do you believe in superstitions?
5. choose, chose, chosen
In the past, did parents or matchmakers choose a person’s spouse (wife or husband)? Is this still common? Is or was this good or bad?
6. draw, drew, drawn
Can you draw? Did you used to draw as a child? What did you draw?
7. drive, drove, driven
Camillo is a retired long-distance truck (lorry) driver. Where has he driven to?
Eat, Ate, Eaten
8. eat, ate, eaten
Have you ever eaten caviar, duck, frogs, truffles, snails, octopus, squid, shark; dim sum, falafel, pizza, shawarma, sushi, taco?
9. fall, fell, fallen
The government has fallen. Is this good or bad?
10. forbid, forbade, forbidden
I would like to see_____forbidden and______legalized.
11. forget, forgot, forgotten
Nancy was very angry with Will. Why?
Have your friends forgotten their high school French?
12. freeze, froze, frozen
The invaders failed to conquer Russia. Why?
13. give, gave, given
Mr. Hasan is very generous.
14. grow, grew, grown
Mr. De Jong did not recognize his niece and nephew.
Hide, Hid, Hidden
15. hide, hid, hidden
Have people found hidden treasures or artifacts in your country?
16. know, knew, known
Ancient civilizations knew certain things that we don’t. True or false?
17. ride, rode, ridden
How did (do) people travel in the past (and the present)?
Have you ridden on airplane, horse, camel?
18. rise, rose, risen
What happened to all ancient civilizations? Why?
19. see, saw, seen
I have seen people from Australia, Bangladesh, Egypt, Korea, Mexico, Morocco, Nigeria, Peru, Philippines, Sudan, Turkey, Ukraine, United States. Yes or no?
20. speak, spoke, spoken
Have you ever spoken to foreigners? Who were they? What did they say?
21. steal, stole, stolen
What can you say about Robin Hood? Was he good or bad or both?
Swear, Swore, Sworn
22. swear, swore, sworn (2)
The teacher was very angry at Bobby. Why?
The elected official swore that he would serve the people.
23. take, took, taken
I had a headache. What did I do?
24. throw, threw, thrown
The protesters turned violent. What happened?
25. wake, woke, woken
When Rip Van Winkle woke up, he had long, white beard. Why?
26. wear, wore, worn
In the past, people were more elegant clothing. Do you agree?
27. weave, wove, woven
What is the difference between modern and traditional society?
28. write, wrote, written
Who were Plato, Thomas More, Jules Verne, Bram Stoker, and Mary Shelly?
