ESL Grammar: PAST TENSE (4): Irregular Verbs

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:

1. Do → Did
   • Present: I do my homework.
   • Past: I did my homework yesterday.
2. Drink → Drank
   • Present: She drinks water every day.
   • Past: She drank water after the run.
3. Eat → Ate
   • Present: They eat breakfast at 8 AM.
   • Past: They ate breakfast an hour ago.
4. Give → Gave
   • Present: He gives me advice.
   • Past: He gave me advice last week.
5. Have → Had
   • Present: We have a meeting today.
   • Past: We had a meeting yesterday.
6. Make → Made
   • Present: She makes delicious cookies.
   • Past: She made delicious cookies last night.
7. Say → Said
   • Present: He says it’s a good idea.
   • Past: He said it was a good idea.
8. See → Saw
   • Present: I see a bird in the tree.
   • Past: I saw a bird in the tree this morning.
9. Sit → Sat
   • Present: They sit on the bench.
   • Past: They sat on the bench yesterday.
10. Take → Took
    • Present: She takes a picture.
    • Past: She took a picture of the sunset.
11. Write → Wrote
    • Present: I write an email.
    • Past: I wrote an 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).