The most common meanings of these irregular verbs are shown with sample phrases. Where more then one meaning is given, the most common meaning of the group is shown with an *. Synonyms and antonyms are also given where possible.
The standard format of the English irregular verb table has been around a long time. Typically, a four-column table: infinitive, past simple and past participle and then a one word translation in the fourth column. Teachers ask their students to study the irregular verb forms and learn them for a test such as fill in the gaps eg. AWAKE - AWOKE - _________.
One problem with this system is that very infrequent verbs are usually included in the list. Verbs that elementary students may rarely use. Many of the most infrequent irregular verbs have been omitted here.
Secondly, too much emphasis is placed on learning the verb forms of long lists of irregular verbs and very little is learnt about how to use these verbs. Many irregular verbs have several meanings and are used in special idiomatic sentence structures. There are then a huge number of phrasal verbs (a few are included here) that combine with irregular verbs.
Students are recommended to concentrate study on the meanings and sentence structures of these verbs, for example, as shown in this fourth column - much more extended than in standard irregular verb tables. As the student notes down more sample uses of these verbs, the verb forms will soon be assimilated without any separate study on form.
Exercise on the irregular verbs on this page...
Verbs: AWAKE to DRIVE / EAT to KEEP... / KNOW to SHOOT... / SHOW to WRITE...
Example phrases |
|||
awake (wake) |
awoke (woke) |
awoken (woken) |
- I usually awake / wake / wake up early. |
be |
was / were |
been |
- When I phoned, there was no answer. (Saying something exists: there is, there are, there was, there were, there has been etc.) |
beat |
beat |
beaten |
- *When he won the race, he beat his closest rival. |
become |
became |
become |
- He became very angry when he saw what they had done to his car. |
begin |
began |
begun |
- She began to cry when she found out the terrible news. |
bet |
bet |
bet |
- *She bet $100 on the horse and won a lot of money. |
bite |
bit |
bitten |
- I`ve been bitten by a mosquito and it hurts. |
blow |
blew |
blown |
- *The wind blew hard that day and the trees shook. |
break |
broke |
broken |
- *The vase fell on the floor and broke into many pieces. |
bring |
brought |
brought |
- *She brought take-away meals home for all the family. |
build |
built |
built |
- *They built an ugly block of flats next to the beach. |
burn |
burnt |
burnt |
- *I burnt the toast. |
buy |
bought |
bought |
- Money can't buy you love. |
catch |
caught |
caught |
- *Throw the ball to me and I'll catch it. |
choose |
chose |
chosen |
- He chose the blue one because it was his favourite colour. |
come |
came |
come |
- *John came to my party last week. |
cost |
cost |
cost |
- *It cost me a lot of money; about $1000! |
cut |
cut |
cut |
- *I cut myself while I was peeling the potatoes. |
dig |
dug |
dug |
- *We dug a hole to plant a tree. |
do |
did |
done |
- You've done a good job on this report. Well done! |
draw |
drew |
drawn |
- *The artists drew a beautiful picture. |
drink |
drank |
drunk |
- She's drunk about 6 pints of beer tonight. She can't drive home. |
drive |
drove |
driven |
- *I've driven to work today. My car's parked outside. |
Verbs: AWAKE to DRIVE / EAT to KEEP... / KNOW to SHOOT... / SHOW to WRITE...
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