Lesson 13 · Stage 1: The basics
Past simple (irregular verbs)
BeginnerForm & use
went, saw, took… — a finished action in the past, with an irregular verb
1.What irregular verbs are
Many of the most common verbs don't add -ed. They have their own past form, often called V2 (the second column in an irregular verb table): go → went, see → saw, buy → bought. The V2 form is the same for every subject.
They are used exactly like regular verbs: for a finished action at a time in the past (see the lesson “Past simple: -ed, did / didn't”).
| Examples | |
|---|---|
| Affirmative | I went home early. |
| Negative | I didn't go home early. |
| Question | Did you go home early? · Where did you go? |
| Short answer | Yes, I did. / No, I didn't. |
The key point: the V2 form (went, saw, bought) is only for affirmative sentences. Once you have did / didn't, the verb goes back to the base form: I didn't go, Did you see…? — not “didn't went” or “did you saw”.
2.Common irregular verbs
They are easier to remember in groups that change in the same way.
| Pattern | Base form → past (V2) |
|---|---|
| -ought / -aught (both said /ɔːt/) | buy → bought, bring → brought, think → thought, fight → fought, catch → caught, teach → taught |
| ending in -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 (said /red/) |
| vowel changes to a | begin → began, drink → drank, sing → sang, swim → swam, sit → sat, give → gave, come → came, eat → ate |
| vowel changes to o | break → broke, choose → chose, speak → spoke, steal → stole, wake → woke, drive → drove, ride → rode, write → wrote, get → got, forget → forgot |
| ending in -ew | know → knew, grow → grew, throw → threw, blow → blew, fly → flew, draw → drew |
| changes to -oo- | take → took, shake → shook, stand → stood, understand → understood |
| no change | cut → cut, put → put, let → let, hit → hit, cost → cost, shut → shut |
| completely different — just learn them | 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 |
Don't try to learn a 200-verb list at once. The 50 or so verbs above cover most of what you say every day. Each evening, try telling the story of your day in 5–6 past sentences: I got up at six, I had noodles, I took the bus…
3.V2 or V3? And easily confused pairs
| Base form | Past (V2) | Past participle (V3) |
|---|---|---|
| go | went | gone |
| see | saw | seen |
| do | did | done |
| eat | ate | eaten |
| write | wrote | written |
| drink | drank | drunk |
| begin | began | begun |
The past simple uses only the middle column (V2): I saw her yesterday (not: I seen her), We went home (not: We gone home). The V3 column goes after have / has / had and in the passive — see the lesson “Present perfect”.
I bought some mangoes at the market and brought them to the party.
buy → bought; bring → brought
We won the game — we beat the best team in the league.
win + a game or prize; beat + an opponent
I felt dizzy and nearly fell over.
feel → felt; fall → fell
I read that book last summer.
past read is spelled the same but said /red/
4.Questions and negatives
Just like every other verb in the past simple: did / didn't + base form. The irregular form disappears once did is there.
I didn't sleep well last night.
not: didn't slept
Did you take your medicine?
What did she say?
How did you find out?
Exception: when who / what is the subject (the person or thing doing the action), there is no did and the verb is in the V2 form: Who told you? What happened? — see the lesson “Subject and object questions”.
5.Common mistakes
I goed to the beach.I went to the beach.
go is irregular: went.
She didn't took the bus.She didn't take the bus.
Base form after didn't.
Did you saw my message?Did you see my message?
Base form after did.
I seen him yesterday.I saw him yesterday.
seen is V3; the past simple uses V2: saw.
We have gone to Hue last month.We went to Hue last month.
last month → past simple.
He teached me to swim.He taught me to swim.
teach → taught.
Examples
- 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.
