Verbs: Irregular Verbs

Lesson Plan - Get It!

Audio:

• When you think about the word “irregular,” what comes to mind?

• Do you think about something that is not normal — maybe lopsided?

The leaf above has lobes that are not identical from one side to the other, so it is definitely irregular.

Before going on, if you missed or need to review or refer to the previous Related Lessons in our Verbs series, find them in the right-hand sidebar.

Irregular verbs do not follow the standard form of other verbs where you add an “-ed” to change the present tense to a past tense. Instead, with an irregular verb, the entire word changes. For example: “The girls sweep the floor,” would become “The girls swept the floor.” You definitely would not say, “The girls sweeped the floor.”

• Would you say, “The boys winned the game”?

No, of course not; you would say, “The boys won the game.”

• What about this one: “I sayed the answer loudly and clearly.”?

Once again, that is incorrect; you would say, “I said the answer loudly and clearly." If you were to read those sentences out loud, they wouldn’t even sound right, would they?

• How many irregular verbs can you think of?

Make a list of verbs that you think are irregular before you continue to the Got It? section, where you will practice changing the irregular verbs from present to past tense.