Lección 13 · Etapa 1: Lo básico
Pasado simple (verbos irregulares)
PrincipiantePast simple (irregular verbs)
Forma y uso
went, saw, took… — una acción pasada y terminada, con verbo irregular
1.Qué son los verbos irregulares
Muchos de los verbos más comunes no añaden -ed. Tienen su propia forma de pasado, que a menudo se llama V2 (la segunda columna de una tabla de verbos irregulares): go → went, see → saw, buy → bought. La forma V2 es igual para todos los sujetos.
Se usan exactamente igual que los verbos regulares: para una acción terminada en un momento del pasado (mira la lección “Pasado simple: -ed, did / didn't”).
| Ejemplos | |
|---|---|
| Afirmativa | I went home early. |
| Negativa | I didn't go home early. |
| Pregunta | Did you go home early? · Where did you go? |
| Respuesta corta | Yes, I did. / No, I didn't. |
Lo más importante: la forma V2 (went, saw, bought) es solo para oraciones afirmativas. En cuanto aparece did / didn't, el verbo vuelve a la forma base: I didn't go, Did you see…? Nunca “didn't went” ni “did you saw”.
2.Verbos irregulares comunes
Es más fácil recordarlos en grupos que cambian de la misma manera.
| Patrón | Forma base → pasado (V2) |
|---|---|
| -ought / -aught (los dos suenan /ɔːt/) | buy → bought, bring → brought, think → thought, fight → fought, catch → caught, teach → taught |
| terminan en -t | sleep → slept, keep → kept, feel → felt, leave → left, lose → lost, send → sent, spend → spent, build → built |
| ee / ea → e | meet → met, feed → fed, lead → led, read → read (suena /red/) |
| la vocal cambia a a | begin → began, drink → drank, sing → sang, swim → swam, sit → sat, give → gave, come → came, eat → ate |
| la vocal cambia a o | break → broke, choose → chose, speak → spoke, steal → stole, wake → woke, drive → drove, ride → rode, write → wrote, get → got, forget → forgot |
| terminan en -ew | know → knew, grow → grew, throw → threw, blow → blew, fly → flew, draw → drew |
| cambian a -oo- | take → took, shake → shook, stand → stood, understand → understood |
| no cambian | cut → cut, put → put, let → let, hit → hit, cost → cost, shut → shut |
| totalmente distintos: hay que aprenderlos | go → went, be → was / were, do → did, have → had, make → made, see → saw, say → said, hear → heard, find → found, tell → told, run → ran, fall → fell, win → won |
No intentes aprender una lista de 200 verbos de golpe. Los 50 verbos más o menos de arriba cubren casi todo lo que dices a diario. Cada noche, intenta contar tu día en 5 o 6 oraciones en pasado: I got up at six, I had noodles, I took the bus…
3.¿V2 o V3? Y parejas fáciles de confundir
| Forma base | Pasado (V2) | Participio (V3) |
|---|---|---|
| go | went | gone |
| see | saw | seen |
| do | did | done |
| eat | ate | eaten |
| write | wrote | written |
| drink | drank | drunk |
| begin | began | begun |
El pasado simple usa solo la columna del medio (V2): I saw her yesterday (no: I seen her), We went home (no: We gone home). La columna V3 va después de have / has / had y en la voz pasiva; mira la lección “Present perfect”.
I bought some mangoes at the market and brought them to the party.
Compré unos mangos en el mercado y los llevé a la fiesta. (buy → bought; bring → brought)
We won the game — we beat the best team in the league.
Ganamos el partido: vencimos al mejor equipo de la liga. (win + un partido o un premio; beat + un rival)
I felt dizzy and nearly fell over.
Me mareé y casi me caigo. (feel → felt; fall → fell)
I read that book last summer.
Leí ese libro el verano pasado. (read en pasado se escribe igual, pero suena /red/)
4.Preguntas y negativas
Igual que cualquier otro verbo en pasado simple: did / didn't + forma base. La forma irregular desaparece en cuanto aparece did.
I didn't sleep well last night.
Anoche no dormí bien. (no: didn't slept)
Did you take your medicine?
¿Te tomaste la medicina?
What did she say?
¿Qué dijo?
How did you find out?
¿Cómo te enteraste?
Excepción: cuando who / what es el sujeto (la persona o cosa que hace la acción), no se usa did y el verbo va en V2: Who told you? What happened? Mira la lección “Preguntas de sujeto y de objeto”.
5.Errores comunes
I goed to the beach.I went to the beach.
go es irregular: went.
She didn't took the bus.She didn't take the bus.
Forma base después de didn't.
Did you saw my message?Did you see my message?
Forma base después de did.
I seen him yesterday.I saw him yesterday.
seen es el V3; el pasado simple usa el V2: saw.
We have gone to Hue last month.We went to Hue last month.
last month → pasado simple.
He teached me to swim.He taught me to swim.
teach → taught.
Ejemplos
- Yesterday I lost my keys at the café.
- She bought a new phone last week.
- I slept for ten hours last night.
- Yesterday we drank the whole bottle of water on the way up Ba Den Mountain.
