A2–B1 English grammar reference

Irregular Verbs List: 60 Common Forms and Exercises

You do not need to memorise every irregular verb in one long, random chain. Search the 60 most useful forms, notice the families inside the list, and practise choosing the past simple or past participle from a real sentence.

A2–B132 minutesGuided practiceScored quiz

Created by Denis M., British English teacher.

Understand · You say · Check

A clear route through the lesson

Core route: learn eight useful verbs, then use two in your own sentences. Keep the full 60-verb table as a searchable reference. Extra lists and the longer writing task are optional.

Read the explanations, answer aloud at each You say pause, then reveal the model and check one point. A model is one possible answer. Finish with the 12-question understanding check.

Keep the learner’s speaking time. At each You say pause, use the suggested follow-up and one correction focus. Finish with the 12-question understanding check.

What the three forms do

Base form

Use the base after to, modal verbs and do/does/did.

I want to go.
She can write.
Did you see it?

Past simple

Use this for a completed past event with a finished time or clear past story.

We went yesterday.
He wrote last night.
I saw her at ten.

Past participle

Use this after have/has/had and in passive forms after be.

They have gone.
She had written it.
It was seen.

The most common error: Did you went? Did you go? The auxiliary did already carries the past tense, so the main verb returns to the base form.

Your eight-verb starting set

go → went → gone · see → saw → seen · take → took → taken · write → wrote → written · eat → ate → eaten · give → gave → given · choose → chose → chosen · read → read → read

The spelling of read stays the same. Its base form rhymes with “need”; its past and participle rhyme with “red”. Learn each verb with a sentence, not only a list.

Listen, then say it

Listen to the forms in context, then repeat one pair. The past forms of read sound like red.

Read the audio transcript

I read every day. I read the book yesterday. I have read it twice. Say, said, said. She said it clearly. Choose, chose, chosen. I chose the blue one. I have chosen my course.

Optional extension: 60 common irregular verbs

60 common irregular verbs

Search any form in the reference table. Use the short pronunciation model below for the selected core forms.

Base form	Past simple	Past participle
be	was / were	been
become	became	become
begin	began	begun
break	broke	broken
bring	brought	brought
build	built	built
buy	bought	bought
catch	caught	caught
choose	chose	chosen
come	came	come
cost	cost	cost
cut	cut	cut
do	did	done
draw	drew	drawn
drink	drank	drunk
drive	drove	driven
eat	ate	eaten
fall	fell	fallen
feel	felt	felt
find	found	found
fly	flew	flown
forget	forgot	forgotten
get	got	got / gotten
give	gave	given
go	went	gone
grow	grew	grown
have	had	had
hear	heard	heard
hold	held	held
keep	kept	kept
know	knew	known
lead	led	led
leave	left	left
lose	lost	lost
make	made	made
meet	met	met
pay	paid	paid
put	put	put
read	read	read
ride	rode	ridden
run	ran	run
say	said	said
see	saw	seen
sell	sold	sold
send	sent	sent
sing	sang	sung
sit	sat	sat
sleep	slept	slept
speak	spoke	spoken
spend	spent	spent
stand	stood	stood
swim	swam	swum
take	took	taken
teach	taught	taught
tell	told	told
think	thought	thought
understand	understood	understood
wear	wore	worn
win	won	won
write	wrote	written

Accent note: American English commonly uses gotten for the participle when the meaning is “become” or “obtained”; British English usually uses got. Both varieties use got in have got.

Learn families, not sixty isolated items

All three forms stay the same

cost–cost–cost, cut–cut–cut, put–put–put

The spelling is stable, but the sentence still tells you the time and function.

Past and participle match

bring–brought–brought, feel–felt–felt, keep–kept–kept, teach–taught–taught

This is the largest useful family in the list.

Base and participle match

become–became–become, come–came–come, run–ran–run

The middle form changes; the third returns to the base.

Vowel ladder

begin–began–begun, drink–drank–drunk, sing–sang–sung, swim–swam–swum

Say the three vowels as a rhythm: i–a–u.

O in the past, -en in the participle

break–broke–broken, choose–chose–chosen, speak–spoke–spoken, write–wrote–written

The participle often has an -en ending, though spelling changes.

-ew to -own/-awn

draw–drew–drawn, fly–flew–flown, grow–grew–grown, know–knew–known

Group the sound pattern, then attach a real example sentence.

Five details worth learning correctly

Verb	What learners confuse	Reliable example
read–read–read	The spelling stays the same, but past read sounds like red.	I read /riːd/ every day. Yesterday I read /red/ chapter six.
go–went–gone	Went is only past simple; gone follows have.	She went home. She has gone home.
be–was/were–been	Use was with I/he/she/it and were with you/we/they.	They were late. They have been late twice.
say–said–said	Said sounds like sed, not like paid.	He said the meeting was cancelled.
lead–led–led	Past led has no a. The noun lead (the metal) has the same sound.	Mina led the team last year.

Guided practice

Decide which form the grammar requires before you search the list.

1. We ___ (take) the early train yesterday.

took. A completed event with yesterday needs the past simple.

2. Have you ever ___ (write) a formal complaint?

written. The present perfect uses have + past participle.

3. The window was ___ (break) during the storm.

broken. A passive form uses be + past participle.

4. Did Eva ___ (bring) the documents?

bring. After did, use the base form: not brought.

5. By noon, the children had ___ (drink) all the water.

drunk. The past perfect uses had + past participle.

Memory challenge: Choose ten verbs you genuinely use. Make three short sentences for each: one with the base, one with the past, and one with have + participle. Personal sentences are easier to remember than a copied list.