Regular and Irregular Verbs

What the page covers

This unit sits in the strand Grammar: Verbs and Tenses, within English language. Most of the material is flashcards, and they list verbs in three columns: base form, simple past and past participle. Some decks add pictures or Spanish translations, and one, Unusual irregular verbs, puts rarer verbs such as arise, beat, bear and forbid into example sentences.

Where to start

Begin with a full list so you can see the forms side by side. Verbs (base form, simple past, past participle) runs alphabetically from BE and BEAT through to the later letters. Irregular verbs with pictures gives begin, began, begun and similar sets with visual support. If you want shorter chunks, look for the numbered and part-one decks.

1. Read a flashcard deck and say each verb aloud.
2. Look at a mind map to see the patterns.
3. Take a quiz to check what stuck.
4. Go back to the cards for the verbs you missed.

Using maps and quizzes together

The mind maps group verbs so you learn families rather than single words. Verbos Irregulares! has one-word verbs that do not change, such as cost, cut and hit, and a group with a T ending, such as lend and lent or send and sent. Other maps cover verbs that do not change, and ones that add -n or -en from the second to the third form. A note, Irregular verbs: 3 column conjugations, sets tasks such as finding verbs that are the same in all three forms.

Quizzes then let you recall the forms. Rest of the verbs uses fill-in-the-blank answers, and there are easy, medium and advanced sets, plus tests on the past participle. Regular verbs are covered too, in the English REGULAR verbs and Regular Verbs Part 1 decks, so you can compare them with the irregular ones.

Next steps

Pick a deck, try one quiz from the list, and note which verbs trip you up. Then make your own flashcards or mind map for those verbs. Teachers can set a deck or quiz as ready-made practice.