Past Simple - Irregular Verbs - Formation, Use, Examples & Video

Q: What's the best way to learn irregular verbs?

Learn them in small groups that follow a pattern (sing-sang-sung, ring-rang-rung), and practise the ones you actually use most first. Say them out loud until the sound feels automatic.

I Swear English › Verb Tenses › Past Simple - Irregular Verbs

How to form the past simple

How To Form The Past Simple with irregular verbs:

1st Column Compliment	2nd Column Past Simple Affirmitive	3rd Column Past Participle
eat	ate	eaten
become	became	become

To form the past simple affirmative of an irregular verb, take a subject and after that put the word in the second column of the irregular verb table. Like this we get: I ate. To construct negative sentences, take a subject, then put the auxiliary did, next put not and finally put the word in the first column of the irregular verb table, which is the same as the compliment of the verb. Do not Use column 2 for this. Like this we get: I did not eat. To make questions use the auxiliary did, followed by a subject, followed by the word in the first column (the compliment). Like this we get: Did I eat? If you wish you can put a question word before to give: What did you eat? The table below shows the form of the past simple for irregular verbs:

Affirmative	Negative	Interrogative
I ate	I did not eat	Did I eat?
You ate	You did not eat	Did you eat?
He ate	He did not eat	Did he eat?
She ate	She did not eat	Did she eat?
It ate	It did not eat	Did it eat?
We ate	We did eat	Did we eat?
You ate	You did not eat	Did you eat?
They ate	They did not eat	Did they eat?

The following video explains how to form the past simple with irregular verbs:

When to use it

Completed past actions — exactly like the regular past simple, but the verb form is irregular. I went home. She saw it. They took the bus.
Storytelling and sequences in the past. He came in, sat down and began to speak.

Signal words & time expressions: yesterday, last night, ago, in 2015, when, then, after that

Watch the video lesson

Video transcript

How to form the past simple with irregular verbs. OK the irregular verbs for example to eat: eat, ate, eaten. They normally come in 1... 2... 3... columns. The first column is the compliment, the infinitive without to. The second column is for the past simple and in this tense we need to use the words from the second column. How to use them I will explain more in a minute. The third column is the past participle and for other tenses. SO, for past simple column 2. So to make affirmative statements in the past simple with irregular verbs, take a subject I and then the word from column 2. I ate. Eat, ate, eaten, column 2. I ate, you ate, he ate, she ate, it ate, we ate, you ate, they ate. And this is the only place where we use column 2. To make negatives we use the auxiliary did, followed by not, followed by the compliment of the verb. Column 1. So to make past statements in the negative with irregular verbs, I did not eat, column 1. I did not eat, column 1. Not I did not ate, no. I did not eat, you did not eat, he did not eat, she did not eat, we did not eat, you did not eat, they did not (or didn't) eat. To make questions invert the position of the subject and the auxiliary did. Did I eat? Again column 1. OK? Did you eat? Did he eat? Did she eat? Did it eat? Did we eat? Did you eat? Did they eat? So notice we only use the irregular part for affirmative statements, I ate. Negative, no, did I eat, no that's a question, in the negative I didn't eat. I got those the wrong way round, OK? So... the second column for affirmative statements only. So, for example write. Write, wrote, written. I wrote, but in the negative, I didn't write. Understand, I understood in the positive, but negative, I didn't understand. SO remember when making the past simple, use the second column (eat, ATE, understand, UNDERSTOOD) for positive formation. So, I'll see you in the next video and we'll learn some more. See you soon.

Common mistakes to avoid

Not quite…	Better
She ~~goed~~ to school.	She went to school. — irregular verbs don't add -ed; they change form and must be learned.
I ~~didn't saw~~ it.	I didn't see it. — after didn't the verb returns to its base form.

Frequently asked questions

What's the best way to learn irregular verbs?

Learn them in small groups that follow a pattern (sing-sang-sung, ring-rang-rung), and practise the ones you actually use most first. Say them out loud until the sound feels automatic.

Why do irregular verbs exist?

They are among the oldest, most common words in English and kept their old forms while newer verbs took the regular -ed ending.

Continue the course

This lesson is part of our free English Verb Tenses course — work through it in order or jump to what you need next.

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