The Simple Past: Affirmative Statements with Irregular Verbs

 English Grammar Lesson and Exercise on Simple Past -Irregular Verbs

In the case of irregular English verbs, the form of the Simple Past must be memorized. As illustrated by the examples below, for some irregular verbs, the Simple Past is the same as the past participle; whereas for others, the Simple Past differs from the past participle. A table of 140 common English irregular verbs is provided. 

For example:

Bare Infinitive	Simple Past	Past Participle
begin	began	begun
find	found	found
go	went	gone
let	let	let
take	took	taken

Like the regular verbs, irregular verbs other than the verb to be do not modify in the Simple Past, but have the same form, regardless of the subject. For example, the Simple Past of the irregular verb to take is conjugated as follows:

I took
you took
he took
she took
it took
we took
they took

Exercise

Referring to the table of English irregular verbs if necessary, fill in the blanks with the Simple Past tense of the irregular verbs shown in brackets. For example:
They _____ a song. (to write)
They wrote a song.

We _____ the floor. (to sweep)
We swept the floor.

Answers:
1. did  
2. went 
3. took 
4. made 
5. ran 6. 
got 
7. drank 
8. slept 
9. forgot 
10. left