Somewhere in your past there is a school exercise book with three columns: go, went, gone. Buy, bought, bought. Swim, swam, swum. You copied them out, you were tested on Fridays, and today — years later — you still hesitate at “flew” and occasionally invent “buyed”.
The problem was never you. It was the alphabet. Learning irregular verbs in alphabetical order scatters their patterns, and patterns are the only thing that makes a hundred-odd exceptions learnable. Group the verbs by sound, and your ear starts doing the memorising for you.
Here is the quick reference we wish every learner had — organised the useful way.
First, Why These Verbs Matter So Much
Irregular verbs are not a grammar luxury. They include most of the verbs English uses constantly — be, have, go, get, make, take, come, see, say, think, find, give. You cannot tell a story about yesterday without a fistful of them: I went to Gozo, took the ferry, saw the Citadel, ate too much, came back exhausted.
The two forms you are juggling are the past simple (I went) and the past participle (I have gone), which also builds perfect tenses and passives. Some verbs make it easy by using one form for both. Others insist on three. Hence the groups below.
Group 1: The Lazy Ones — All Three Forms Identical
The friendliest group. Learn once, use everywhere:
cut – cut – cut · put – put – put · cost – cost – cost · hit – hit – hit · let – let – let · set – set – set · hurt – hurt – hurt · read – read – read (the spelling never changes, but the past forms are pronounced “red” — English’s little joke)
Group 2: Two Forms — Past Simple and Participle Match
The biggest and most useful family. Sub-patterns make them sing:
The -ought/-aught choir:
buy – bought – bought · bring – brought – brought · think – thought – thought · teach – taught – taught · catch – caught – caught · fight – fought – fought
The -t enders:
sleep – slept – slept · keep – kept – kept · feel – felt – felt · leave – left – left · meet – met – met · build – built – built · send – sent – sent · spend – spent – spent · lose – lost – lost
The vowel-swappers:
find – found – found · get – got – got · sit – sat – sat · stand – stood – stood · understand – understood – understood · have – had – had · make – made – made · say – said – said · tell – told – told · sell – sold – sold · pay – paid – paid · hear – heard – heard
Notice how the sub-groups rhyme. Say each line aloud twice and you will feel the pattern lock in — bought, brought, thought, taught, caught is practically a chant.
Group 3: The Divas — Three Different Forms
The famous ones, and again the vowels move in predictable music — usually i → a → u:
drink – drank – drunk · swim – swam – swum · sing – sang – sung · ring – rang – rung · begin – began – begun
And the high-frequency individualists worth knowing cold:
go – went – gone · see – saw – seen · do – did – done · eat – ate – eaten · take – took – taken · give – gave – given · come – came – come · write – wrote – written · speak – spoke – spoken · break – broke – broken · choose – chose – chosen · fly – flew – flown · know – knew – known · grow – grew – grown · throw – threw – thrown
That last line is another chant: knew, grew, threw — known, grown, thrown.
How to Actually Make Them Stick
Learn by pattern group, not alphabet — five rhyming verbs at a time.
Say them aloud. These are sound patterns; silent reading wastes their best feature.
Put each verb in a personal past sentence the moment you learn it: I swam at Golden Bay on Sunday. Stories outlast tables.
Test the participle with “have”. Cover the third column and complete: I have never ___ (fly) a kite. She has ___ (choose) her course. The participle is the form learners neglect — and exams love.
Let conversation do the drilling. Telling three people about your weekend beats copying the table three times, and is considerably more fun.
That last point is the honest secret. Students surrounded by English all day — narrating their mornings, their trips, their small disasters — absorb these forms in weeks, because every story about the past is a rehearsal.
Your Past Tenses, Sorted
Keep this page bookmarked, chant the rhyming groups, and build one personal sentence per verb. The exercise book columns of your school days can finally retire.
And if you would rather do the practising somewhere the past simple describes boat trips and rooftop swims — Maltalingua is an EAQUALS-accredited English school in St Julian’s, Malta, with a maximum of 12 adults per class. Tell us your dates and we will send a free, personalised quote. You will come, you will see, and you will have spoken a great deal of English by Friday.