ESL Grammar: PAST TENSE (5): Irregular Verbs #2

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:

1. Break → Broke
   • Present: I break my toy.
   • Past: I broke my toy yesterday.
2. Buy → Bought
   • Present: She buys groceries.
   • Past: She bought groceries last week.
3. Find → Found
   • Present: They find the keys.
   • Past: They found the keys under the couch.
4. Fly → Flew
   • Present: He flies to New York.
   • Past: He flew to New York last month.
5. Hear → Heard
   • Present: We hear music.
   • Past: We heard music at the party.
6. Know → Knew
   • Present: I know the answer.
   • Past: I knew the answer in the test.
7. Read → Read (pronounced “red”)
   • Present: She reads a book.
   • Past: She read a book yesterday.
8. Run → Ran
   • Present: They run every morning.
   • Past: They ran a marathon last year.
9. Speak → Spoke
   • Present: He speaks English.
   • Past: He spoke English fluently during the interview.
10. Teach → Taught
    • Present: She teaches math.
    • Past: She taught math 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).