Learn the 50 most common irregular English verbs in this two part series. Based on corpus research, you’ll learn the key verbs you need to know. And to make sure you remember them, we follow a two step process. Step one: you see and example or definition and you have to try to guess the verb. Step two: you say the three parts of the verb (base form, past form, past participle). This is first video in the series and it covers the top irregular verbs from 50 to 26. See our next video to learn the top 25.
We have three important auxiliary verbs in English. Do you know what they are… be, do and have. They’re verbs that help us form tenses.
And they’re all irregular verbs. So for example the past form of ‘be’ is ‘was’ or ‘were’ and the past participle is ‘been’.
But most other English verbs are regular. You just have to add ‘ed’ to form the past tense and the past participle so it’s easy!
For example the verbs ‘start’, ‘dance’ and stop are regular. The past and past participle forms all end in -ed – started, danced and stopped.
The good news is there are more regular verbs than irregular verbs in English.
But the bad news is irregular verbs are very common. A lot of the verbs we use most are irregular.
They have a high frequency, so you do need to know them. But we can help. We’re going to show you the 50 most frequent irregular verbs and quiz you.
Now, how we you know they’re the most frequent? Because of corpora studies. Researchers have looked at big databases of English and identified the most frequent verbs.
That sounds very useful.
Yeah.
OK. Here’s what we’re going to do. We’ll go through the verbs one by one, starting with the 50th verb and going up to the first.
You have to do two things. First you have to guess the verb.
We’ll give you an example or definition and you have to work out what the verb is. It’s like a puzzle.
And then you have to say the three different parts of the verb, so its base form, its past form and its past participle.
Say them out loud so you practice your pronunciation. And see if you can say them before we do.
We’ve got a lot of verbs to work on, so we’re going to do two videos.
Let’s get started! Here’s number 50.
What’s the missing verb in this sentence? Do you know?
It’s choose. And what are it’s three parts? Chose, chose, chosen.
OK, next verb. This is number forty-nine and here’s its meaning.
Did you guess it?
It’s wear and the three parts are wear, wore, worn.
Next one.
Here’s the definition.
And here it is in action. What’s the verb and what are its three parts?
Buy, bought, bought.
OK, next one.
This verb’s easy to guess from the video. It’s drive.
But what are its three parts?
Drive drove driven
Next one. What’s the missing verb in this sentence? It has four letters.
Let’s see some levitation in action.
And now ladies and gentlemen, Vicki will rise into the air. She’s rising. She’s risen. She rose. Ow!
The verb rise, rose, risen.
OK, next verb. This one has just three letters.
Let’s see it in action.
And what are the three parts of this verb? They’re all the same. Cut cut cut.
We’re on to number 44. We often use this verb to talk about money and time.
And the verb is spend, spent, spent.
Next one. What’s the verb here?
Oh no!
It’s break, broke, broken.
OK, here’s another one. What is it?
And here it is it in action.
So the verb is draw, drew, drawn. Next one. What’s the missing verb here? And what are it’s 3 parts?
It’s understand, understood, understood.
OK, number 40. Here’s another definition but what’s the verb? It’s build.
And the three parts? Build, built, built
Next one. This is something we do to messages and packages and letters. What is it?
It’s send, sent, sent.
And here’s the next verb in action. What is it?
The verb is fall, fell, fallen.
Next one. Here are the two most important meanings for this verb, so what is it?
Oooo. Can I try it?
OK, but be careful. It’s taken me ages to get this far. Don’t mess it up.
OK. Urgh! Sorry!
It’s lose of course and it goes lose, lost, lost.
The next verb is something plants do.
And children do it as well.
The verb is grow, grew, grown.
OK, the next one is easy. Just look at the video and say what we’re doing.
The verb is read and the three parts are read, read, read.
Notice the spelling stays the same but the pronunciation is different.
OK, the next verb has a lot of different meanings. For example, it can mean taking someone somewhere by going in front.
And it can mean being in charge.
And it can also mean causing something to happen.
So what’s the verb? It’s lead. And what are its three parts? Lead led lead.
Next one. This is when you put your body flat on the floor or on a bed. What’s the missing verb?
Are you OK?
No, I’ve got a headache.
Why don’t you go and lie down?
So the verb is ‘lie’ and its three parts are lie, lay, lain.
That’s confusing because ‘lay’ is a different verb, but it’s also the past form of ‘lie’.
We’ve made another video about that. I’ll put the link here. OK, next one.
OK. This is when you say words. What’s the missing verb here?
It’s speak, of course. And the three parts are speak, spoke, spoken.
The next one’s easy. What’s the missing verb?
It’s sit and it goes sit, sat, sat.
Great. We’re up to number 30 now.
This verb means give someone money for something. So what is it?
That’s 10 Euros, please.
Can I pay by credit card?
No, I’m sorry.
Oh that’s OK, I can pay in cash.
So the verb is pay and the other forms are paid and paid.
Notice the letter Y changes to an to an i there. That happens with some other verbs that end in y too.
OK, the next one should be easy. What’s the missing verb?
It’s run and it goes run… ran run
Next one. You do this when you go to a place to get together with someone.
And also when you see someone for the first time
Errr. Hi I’m Vicki Hollett.
HI, I’m Jay Silber from Pattersons. Welcome to Philadelphia!
Thank you.
So the missing verb was ‘meet’.
And it goes meet, met, met.
Next one. This verb has lots and lots of meanings. Here are some of them.
We can use it when we get the table ready for a meal.
And we use it when we arrange to have an alarm.
And it’s something that the sun does every night.
So what’s the verb?
It’s ‘set’ of course and it goes…. Set, set, set
Next one. This is what we say when we don’t understand someone and we want them to explain.
Perhaps they say something in English, but we don’t know the words.
The verb is mean and the three parts are mean meant meant.
What do you mean?
And that’s it for this video. Tell us how you got on with guessing the verbs in the comments.
And of course we’re only half way there. We’re going to look at the next top irregular verbs in another video.
They’re the 25 irregular verbs we use most so you’ve GOT to see it
Make sure you’ve subscribed to our channel so you don’ miss it. Bye now.
Bye bye.