Irregular Verbs, past simple & past perfect

• Engels
• Middelbare school
• havo, vwo
• Leerjaar 4,5

Grammar

The past simple & Irregular Verbs

The past perfect

write 3 words in
the past tense

Yesterday I _______ (to listen) to music.

Yesterday I _____ (to go) to school.

The past simple tense

Regular verbs (regelmatige werkwoorden)	Irregular verbs (onregelmatige werkwoorden)
Rule: verb +ed or: verb +d	No rule! You must learn them all
Play -> played	am/is/are -> was/were
Smile -> smiled	go -> went
Stop -> stopped	sing -> sang

Past simple

The past perfect tense

When? For talking about something that happened before something else. 

How?            had + verb in past participle

Examples:

• I had eaten my breakfast when my sister walked in. 
  
• She had woken up before her alarm clock went off. 
  

Irregular Verbs

Past Simple = adding +ed to a verb (walk-ed)
Perfect = have/has + adding +ed to a verb (have walk-ed)

Irregular verbs do not follow this pattern:
eat - ate - eaten
leave - left - left
swim - swam - swum 

Types of Irregular Verbs:

                 1. Stay the same:                          hurt > hurt > hurt
                 2. Have 2 different forms:        pay > paid > paid
                 3. Get a -t :                                       build > built > built
                 4. Change of vowels:                  ring > rang > rung
                 5. Get -en:                                        write > wrote > written
                 6. Weird ones:                                go > went > gone

1. I went to the grocery store and _____ (buy) some food.

1. buyed
2. bought
3. bougt
4. bouyd

2. He wanted to be a singer, but he _______ (become) a doctor.

1. become
2. became
3. becomed
4. becamed

3. We had just arrived home, when it _______ (begin) to rain.

1. begin
2. began
3. begun
4. begen

4. She _____ (break) her leg, while she was skiing.

1. breaked
2. break
3. broke
4. brake

5. Lucy ______ (pay) the bill, before leaving the restaurant.

1. payed
2. paid
3. payt
4. pait

6. Julia wasn't home. She had ______ to the shops.

1. go
2. goed
3. went
4. gone

7. We have _____ (keep) this a secret for years.

1. keeped
2. keept
3. kept
4. keped

8. The books had ______ (fall) off the table and were all over the floor.

1. fell
2. fall
3. fellen
4. fallen

9. Birds have _____ (fly) south for the winter.

1. flyed
2. flew
3. flewed
4. flown

10. She has _____ (know) about this problem for years.

1. knew
2. knowed
3. knewn
4. known

11. I _____ (lend) my umbrella to David, so I got wet.

1. lent
2. lended
3. had lent
4. have lent

12. They _____ (leave) ten minutes ago.

1. left
2. have left
3. have leaved
4. had left

13. You _____ (buy) a lot of clothes recently.

1. bought
2. have bought
3. buyed
4. had bought

14. We ______ (sing) too much yesterday. I have a sore throat.

1. sing
2. sang
3. have sang
4. had sang

15. I _______ (write) three essays this week.

1. wrote
2. have written
3. have wrote
4. had written

16. After he _____ (eat) breakfast, James left early to make sure he wouldn't be late for work.

1. ate
2. have ate
3. have eaten
4. had eaten

17. The weatherman ____ (tell) us it would be sunny, but it rained all day.

1. told
2. have told
3. has told
4. had told

18. I _____ (see) George again last week. He looked really well.

1. see
2. saw
3. have seen
4. had seen

19. I ______ (drink) the last of the Coca Cola last night.

1. drank
2. drunk
3. have drunk
4. had drank

20. I _______ (meet) you before, right?

1. met
2. have met
3. had met
4. had meeten

More information: 

Arabic explanation of the past simple: https://youtu.be/5TjpEcrNbCc 

Arabic past perfect: https://youtu.be/8QehpHhgN04

English: https://learnenglishteens.britishcouncil.org/grammar/a1-a2-grammar/past-simple-irregular-verbs