Past Simple
Lesson 3 of 7 · ~5 minutes

Lesson 3 · Past Simple

Irregular verbs

Irregular verbs

Some verbs never take -ed: they have their own past form. You can't work it out from a rule — you learn it.

Ten that are enough for the whole course

Only these appear in the lessons:

Base form

go
have
see
take
come
make
get
buy
put
write

Past

went
had
saw
took
came
made
got
bought
put
wrote
Base form
Past
go
went
have
had
see
saw
take
took
come
came
make
made
get
got
buy
bought
put
put
write
wrote

I went to school yesterday.

She put it on the table.

put doesn't change — you can tell it's the past from the sentence: I put it here every day. and I put it here yesterday.

Where people usually slip

Don't add -ed to the past form: I went, not I goed and not I wented.

If a verb has its own form, that form is already the past — nothing else is needed. The full list with groups is in the Irregular verbs course; these ten are enough here.

In short

  • regularwork → worked
  • irregulargo → went, its own form
  • nevergoed, wented, seed
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