Learn 10 verbs with irregular past tense forms
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| Hi, everybody. Welcome back to Top Words. My name is Alisha. Today, we're going to talk about 10 verbs with irregular past tense forms. Let's go. |
| "Buy / bought." The first verb is "buy." The past tense of "buy" is "bought." It totally changes. Please don't say, "I buyed." It is incorrect. Please say, "I bought a puppy." "I bought a pizza." "I bought a bowl of tonkatsu ramen for lunch." That's a lie. Anyway, "buy" becomes "bought." "I bought my friend a new pair of headphones." In a different sentence, "I bought a lot of food at the store. |
| "Fly / flew." The next verb is "fly." Fly. The past tense of "fly" is "flew." Flew, F-L-E-W. "I flew from my house to my mom's house in an airplane," directly, doorway to doorway. Let's see, "I flew a plane for the first time last week." We can also use flew for an object in the air. "My friend threw up…" Throw becomes threw. This is the same way. "…threw a piece of paper and it flew into my head." We can use it in this way too. In another sentence, "We flew to London via Dubai." |
| "Blow / blew." The next verb is "blow." "Blow" becomes "blew." Blew, B-L-U-E is not the correct spelling. It's B-L-E-W. Please be careful. "Blue," the color, like this shirt and "blew," the past tense of this verb have the same pronunciation but they have different spellings. So, please be careful. If you see those two words don't get them mixed up. "Blew" is the past tense of blow. We use it for wind. "The wind blew my hair around this morning." That's true. We can say the expression, "He really blew it in that presentation." That's a slang phrase which means he made a huge mistake. "He blew it." He totally missed his chance to blow something. "I blew it," or "You blew it" means you totally made a mistake. You just messed up your chances. In a different sentence, "The wind blew my hair around." |
| "Bring / brought." The next verb is "bring." The past tense of "bring" is "brought." "I brought my mom to a club." "I brought a beach towel to the beach." "I brought a coffee to my meeting in the morning." "I brought shame upon my family." Anytime you would like to bring something, please make sure you change it to "brought," not "bring." That is incorrect. In a sentence, "I brought a cake to the party." |
| "Fight / fought." The next verb is "fight." "Fight" can mean a fist fight, a physical fight, but we can also use "fight" to talk about arguments with our words too. "Fight" in past tense becomes "fought," not "fighted," but "fought." "We fought." "We fought about this haircut he gave me." "We fought about dinner." "We fought about where to go for lunch," or you can say, "My boss and I fought about my pay," or "I fought with my dog trying to put the collar on." You can use this in a lot of different situations, to fight or to argue. They're both okay. We use the same verb here. In a sentence, "My brother and I fought almost every day when we were little." It was roughly true. |
| You guys are super tight. |
| Yes, actually, now we are. Now, we don't fight. He is so funny. |
| "Teach / taught." Let's go to the next verb. The next verb is "teach." "Teach" is the next verb. "I am teaching now." The past tense of "teach" is "taught." T-A-U-G-H-T. Please be careful, not T-A-U-T, "taut," which refers to something like a piece of string or a material which is very tight. They have the same pronunciation, "taught." We use this to talk about times when we transmit information, we share information. "I taught you about English." "I taught my friend how to snowboard last year." That's not true. "I taught my dog how to sit." I don't have a dog. "I taught my brother how to play the banjo." Also, not true. "I taught my friend how to make gyoza." Not true. "My friend taught me how to make gyoza." That is true. We can use "teach" and "taught" to talk about sharing information. In this sentence, "I taught my parrot how to talk and now I regret it." Why do I have that example? I wonder what I was thinking when I wrote that example sentence. |
| "Speak / spoke." The next word is "speak." The past tense of "speak" is "spoke." We use "speak" a lot. "I speak English." "I speak Japanese." You, probably, would not use those so much in past tense, unless you want to say, "I spoke Japanese when I was little," or "I spoke Japanese a little bit when I visited Tokyo." You could use that, but instead, we would use the past tense of "speak," "spoke," to report information. "I spoke to my mother yesterday." "I spoke to my boss this morning." "I spoke to my dad today." Something like that. We can expand this to, "I spoke to my dad about moving to a new house." "I spoke to my brother about buying a ping-pong table." In a sentence, a different sentence, "We spoke on the phone yesterday." |
| "Read / read." Next word is "read." "Read" is interesting because "read," in the past tense there is no spelling change. "Read" becomes "read." Read. It sounds like the color red. In past tense, the spelling remains the same, R-E-A-D. "Read a book." "Read a book." We can use this for newspapers, books, anything that is written. "I read a pamphlet about skydiving this summer." Really, anything. "I read a billboard." "I read an email." "I read an Instagram post." "I read a tweet." All of these use the verb "read," but please use "read" in past tense, not "read." In another sentence, "I read a book last month." |
| "Drink / drank." The next verb is "drink." The past tense is drank, D-R-A-N-K. Not "drunk." "Drunk" is a different grammatical point. Also, "drunk" is an adjective used to describe when you have consumed too much alcohol. You have had too much to drink becomes drunk. Past tense is "drank." Be careful the "a" sound and the "u" sound may sound similar to you but they are, in fact, different. They are different grammatical points. Please be careful. "I drank a lot of alcohol a couple days ago." "I drank coffee this morning." "I drank tea before bed." These are all situations where we would use "drank." In a different sentence, "I drank too much yesterday." That's not true. |
| "Think / thought." Perhaps, the most useful verb in this list is the verb "think." The past tense is "thought." You can use the past tense to show that what you thought in the past was different from the actual situation. A real example, like just before this shoot, I said, "I thought we were starting at 5 o'clock." I was wrong. We were starting at 2:30. Oopsy. I can use that, "I thought" to show that there is something different from the actual situation, or maybe to suggest there's a difference in understanding, or, of course, you can just use it for a simple past tense statement like, "I thought you looked very nice in that dress." Please note, though, I just used the past tense, "I thought," and "I thought you looked nice in that dress." "Thought" is past tense, yes, but the next verb also should be past tense. "I thought you were going to a wedding." "I thought you looked nice." "I thought you had to leave." "I thought you needed to do your homework." Yes, the first verb in the first thought is past tense but the second verb also needs to be past tense because that's also a past tense situation, a past tense idea. Please be careful. This is very useful but make sure all your verbs are correct. In another sentence, "I thought you were out of town." |
| That's the end. Whoo. Whoo. Those are 10 verbs that have irregular past tense forms. There are many, many more. Thanks very much for watching this episode of Top Words. I will see you again soon. Bye. |
| Lots of "mom." |
| I know. I'm talking about my mom a lot. Lots of "moms." I just bring all the moms to the club. I'm in charge of bringing moms. Hi, Mom. |
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