Conjugating verbs sounds sexy, right? 😉
It’s hard for me to believe, but for some of you, it might sound like a bit of a dry topic. And for those of you who barely eked out a passing grade in high school Spanish class, conjugating verbs in English might sound like a painful topic!
But to sound smarter, you have to know how to properly conjugate verbs!
Sorry, sweets! I’ve heard you speak, and you need this. So listen to your fairy godmother of grammar. (That’s me, @JillBarletti)
I’m here today with a some quick tips on conjugating verbs. And I’ll even throw in a spell to keep your carriage from turning back into a pumpkin since Halloween is right around the corner!
Bonus: If you read all the way through to the end, I’ll give you two hacks to help you correctly conjugate verbs in English.) 🙂
Conjugating Regular Verbs
I remember sitting in junior high school English class reviewing how to construct the simple present, simple past, and past participle for virtually any verb. My English teacher, Mr. Pentek, had us memorize lists of verb conjugations in the following format:
- “Now I” + present tense
- “Yesterday” + past tense
- “I have” + past participle
To this day, whenever I misplace my grammar crown, I repeat those three lines in order to check if I have correctly conjugated my verbs. It works like a charm!
For regular verbs, conjugating is easy! Take the simple present tense of the verb (i.e. bake), and add “-ed” to form both the simple past (baked) and past participle (baked):
BAKE: bake, baked, (have) baked
PRESENT: Now I bake a cake.
SIMPLE PAST: Yesterday I baked a cake in less than one hour.
PAST PARTICIPLE: I have baked hundreds of cakes over the last several years!
BELIEVE: believe, believed, (have) believed
PRESENT: Now I believe that Santa Claus is real!
SIMPLE PAST: When I was younger I believed that Santa Claus wasn’t real.
PAST PARTICIPLE: For years, I have believed in Santa Claus.
The Dreaded Irregulars
(Cue scary music)
Unfortunately for anyone interested in mastering English grammar and sounding smarter, there are tons of irregular verbs!
And the problem with many irregular verbs is that just when you figure out a pattern, that pattern breaks the rule! Here’s what I mean:
sing, sang, sung
ring, rang, rung
BUT
bring, brought, brought
(not: bring, brang, brung)
Mastering Verb Conjugations
Sorry, my pretties, the only way to learn how to correctly conjugate these verbs is to memorize. :/
I won’t post a list of irregular verbs for you here because friends at StudyLib have put together a fantastic resource listing 100 irregular verbs you should know. (Note: I did not see the verb “to be” on that list.)
How to Hack English Verb Conjugations
“But wait, Fairy Godmother of Grammar,” my growth-hacking, startup friends ask, “Is there a hack to learning these irregular verb conjugations?” My answer is, “Of course there is!”
Learning to Conjugate Verbs – Hack #1
Don’t allow a seemingly long list of 100 verbs overwhelm you. Chances are you know many of these irregular verbs already.
The list of verbs you have to memorize will probably be quite short if you take the time to read through all of the verbs once in order to identify the ones that you have been conjugating incorrectly.
Then all you have to do is spend your time memorizing a much shorter list.
Learning to Conjugate Verbs – Hack #2
“But Fairy Godmother of Grammar,” you say, “I’m pretty confident in my grammar skills. Do I really have to read through all 100 verbs?”
Of course not, my pretties! Being the Good Witch of the Grammar World, I’ve created my own short list of 10 irregular verbs that I most frequently hear people getting wrong. Master these and you’ll sound smarter in no time!
[Waves magic wand and disappears in a cloud of smoke]
10 English Verbs You Are Conjugating Incorrectly
The sample conjugations that follow each verb are presented in the same format as taught by good ole Mr. Pentek:
Present (Now I), Simple Past, Past Participle (I have).
1. Bleed
Wrong:
bleed, bleeded, bled
Tommy bleeded so much after he fell on the playground that there was a red pool of blood on the pavement.
Tommy has bleeded so much in the past 10 minutes that I told him to sit down.
Right:
bleed, bled, bled
Tommy bled so much after he fell on the playground that there was a red pool of blood on the pavement.
Tommy has bled so much in the past 10 minutes that I told him to sit down.
2. Blow
Wrong:
blow, blowed, blown
Yesterday, he blowed his nose a lot; see how red it is?
Right:
blow, blew, blown
Yesterday I blew my nose a lot; see how red it is?
3. Bring
Wrong:
bring, brang, brung
Yesterday, he brang a pie to Grandma’s house.
We have brung the pies to Grandma’s house every year on Thanksgiving for the past five years.
Right:
bring, brought, brought
Yesterday, he brought a pie to Grandma’s house.
We have brought the pies to Grandma’s house every year on Thanksgiving for the past five years.
4. Fly
Wrong:
fly, flied, flied
Yesterday, I flied down the stairs
Wow! He really has flied down those stairs!
Right:
fly, flew, flown
Yesterday I flew down the stairs.
Wow! He really has flown down those stairs!
5. Get
Wrong:
get, got, got
I have got all A’s on my report card since first grade!
Right:
get, got, gotten
I have gotten all A’s on my report card since first grade!
6. Go
Wrong:
go, went, went
He has went to the country fair three years in a row.
Right:
go, went, gone
He has gone to the county fair three years in a row.
7. Lay (something) (down)
Wrong:
lay, laid, lain
I have lain the pencil on the table, just as you asked.
Right:
lay, laid, laid
I have laid the pencil on the table, just as you asked.
8. Lie (down)
Wrong:
lie, laid, laid
Last Monday, I laid down on this very same couch for a power nap.
I have laid down on this couch for a zillion power naps and have never overslept!
Right:
lie, lay, lain
Last Monday, I lay down on this very same couch for a power nap.
I have lain down on this couch for a zillion power naps and have never overslept!
9. Show
Wrong:
show, showed, showed
I have already showed you how to do this correctly!
Right:
show, showed, shown
I have already shown you how to do this correctly!
10. Slide
Wrong:
slide, slided, slided
Yesterday, Tommy slided into home plate to win the game!
I have slided down that snow-covered hill a thousand times.
Right:
slide, slid, slid
Yesterday, Tommy slid into home plate to win the game!
I have slid down that snow-covered hill a thousand times.
* Bonus: Shine – Conjugating shine is complicated! I was going to include it in this list, but thought it deserved it’s own post.
Confused about a specific grammar point?
Tweet me: @Snowflake_Story or @JillBarletti. If your question makes the cut, I’ll write a post just for you! How’s that for a fairy godmother?! 🙂
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Further Study
For those of you who want to embrace your inner grammar geek and want a more in-depth look at these verb conjugations and when to use them, ChompChomp.com has a great explanation.