Ch 4 · Lesson 20English · Chapter 4 · Lesson 20 · Grammar primer

Irregular verbs: see, saw, seen and sing, sang, sung

The verbs with three different forms (see, saw, seen), the ones whose third form is the base (come, came, come), and the i, a, u family.

The short version

The past simple is not the participle

The present perfect needs gone; I have went uses the past simple and is wrong.

Why?

Every irregular verb has three forms, and the third one does most of the damage when you get it wrong. The past simple builds the past tense, but the past participle builds the present perfect and the passive. Learn go, went, gone as a set, out loud, rather than stopping at go, went.

Sing, sang, sung: i, a, u

After has, the third form: begun, not began.

Why?

One family of irregular verbs changes only its vowel, always the same way: i in the base, a in the past simple, u in the third form. Sing, sang, sung; drink, drank, drunk; begin, began, begun. After have or has, use the u form.

Pattern 3: three different forms

the part that changesWhat do the colours mean?

The hard group: two new forms. Many of the most common verbs are here.

The third form ends in -n or -en

Base	Past simple	Third form

Many third forms end in -n: seen, taken, written, broken.

. .

No pattern at all

Base	Past simple	Third form
	`/`

The third form is the base form

Base	Past simple	Third form

. .

Pattern 4: i, a, u

the part that changesWhat do the colours mean?

One family changes only its vowel, always the same way: i in the base, a in the past simple, u in the third form.

sing, sang, sung

Base	Past simple	Third form

. (the past simple)
. (after has: the third form)

Common mistakes

Wrong	Right	Why
I have went.	I have gone.	: .
She buyed it.	She bought it.	irregular.
I have saw it.	I have seen it.	, , .
She has began.	She has begun.	, , u: .
He has came.	He has come.	, , .

Going further: The three forms and the rest of the guide, when you want them. This lesson does not need them.

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Lesson 20 of 29 in this chapter

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What do the colours mean?