Detailed Explanation of the Irregular Past Tense 📚

When we talk about things that already happened, we use the past tense. Most verbs in English follow a simple rule to show the past tense: we add -ed at the end. For example, “walk” becomes “walked”, and “jump” becomes “jumped”. These are called regular past tense verbs.

But some verbs are different. They do not follow the usual -ed rule and change in their own special way. These are called irregular past tense verbs. We have to remember their different forms because we cannot just add -ed to them.

What Are Irregular Past Tense Verbs? 🤔

Irregular past tense verbs are special because their past tense forms don’t follow the usual pattern. Instead, they change completely or stay the same. For example:

  • “Go” changes to “went”.
  • “See” changes to “saw”.
  • “Eat” changes to “ate”.
  • “Buy” changes to “bought”.

How Are Irregular Past Tense Verbs Different? 🔄

Most regular verbs make the past by adding -ed. But irregular verbs change their sounds or letters, and you have to learn each one because there is no fixed pattern.

How Can You Recognise and Use Irregular Past Tense Verbs? 👂✍️

  1. Listen carefully: When you hear someone talking about something that already happened, check if the verb sounds different.
  2. Look at the spelling: Irregular verbs often do not end with -ed in the past tense.
  3. Practice with examples:
    • Present: run → Past: ran
    • Present: take → Past: took
    • Present: make → Past: made
  4. Use them in sentences:
    • “I went to the park yesterday.”
    • “She ate an apple for lunch.”
    • “We saw a funny cat.”

Remember! 📝

Irregular past tense verbs are special and don’t follow the usual rules. With lots of practice, you will learn to spot them and use them correctly in your writing and speaking.

Keep practising these verbs, and soon you will become an expert! 🌟

20 Examination-Style Questions with Answers on Irregular Past Tense for Year 2 📝✅

Here are 20 questions to help Year 2 students practice identifying and using irregular past tense verbs. Each question is followed by the correct answer to help with learning and assessment.

Questions ❓

  1. Change this verb to the past tense: go
  2. What is the past tense of run?
  3. Write the past tense of see.
  4. Change this verb to the past tense: eat
  5. What is the past tense of take?
  6. Write the past tense of come.
  7. Change this verb to the past tense: give
  8. What is the past tense of make?
  9. Write the past tense of find.
  10. Change this verb to the past tense: fly
  11. What is the past tense of drink?
  12. Write the past tense of write.
  13. Change this verb to the past tense: run
  14. What is the past tense of bring?
  15. Write the past tense of sing.
  16. Change this verb to the past tense: break
  17. What is the past tense of think?
  18. Write the past tense of tell.
  19. Change this verb to the past tense: sleep
  20. What is the past tense of ride?

Answers ✔️

  1. went
  2. ran
  3. saw
  4. ate
  5. took
  6. came
  7. gave
  8. made
  9. found
  10. flew
  11. drank
  12. wrote
  13. ran
  14. brought
  15. sang
  16. broke
  17. thought
  18. told
  19. slept
  20. rode

These questions focus on common irregular past tense verbs which are important for Year 2 English learning. Practising these will help build a strong understanding of irregular verbs.