Conjugating Verbs – II

Well, it finally happened!

I ran into a “Dontcha Wanna Sound Smarter?” subscriber IRL (in real life).

It was fun for both of us. But do you know what was really fun about this encounter? She asked me to explain a grammar point.

She said that she felt kind of funny asking, “Have you drunk …?” and wanted to be sure that was the correct conjugation. (It is, in case you’re wondering.)

While I did refer her to my original post on conjugating verbs, I thought it might be helpful to revisit the topic of conjugating verbs in greater detail.

Let’s start with a little review.

Conjugating Regular Verbs

To construct the simple present, simple past, and past participle for any regular verb, take the simple present tense of the verb, and add “-ed” for both the simple past and past participle:

To Place

Present          : place

Simple past   : placed

Past participle: (have) placed

To Play

Present          : play

Simple past   : played

Past participle: (have) played

Conjugating Irregular Verbs

As I pointed out in the previous post, there are tons of irregular verbs.

The only way around it is to memorize them. (Sorry!)

I shared the memorization trip that my junior high English teacher (Mr. Pentek) used in his classes:

• “Now I” + present tense
• “Yesterday” + past tense
• “I have” + past participle

For example:

To Swim: swim, swam swum

• Now I swim.
• Yesterday I swam.
• I have swum.

To Think: think, thought, thought

• Now I think.
• Yesterday I thought.
• I have thought.

As you can see from the above examples, the irregulars don’t all follow the same pattern. But somehow, repeating the three lines does help in learning the irregulars.

Breaking it down

The easiest way to commit to memory all of the irregular verbs in English is to break them into groups of verbs that follow the same pattern and memorize the verbs one group at a time.

And you know that your fairy godmother of grammar has got your back! So I’ve done the grouping for you!

The format will be as follows:

Group 1: All the same

Just like the classification states, in this group of irregular verbs, each of the tenses are alike.

Group 2: Last 2 the same

For this group of verbs, remember that the simple past and the past participle are identical.

Group 3: i / a / u

To construct the triad of verb tenses in this group, not that the last vowel in the present tense is “i,” the last vowel in the simple past is “a,” and for the past participle, the last vowel is “u.”

If you recite the verbs in this group in a list, it sounds singsongy.

Group 4: Past participle ends with “n” sound

Here, the distinguishing factor to remember is that the past participle for each of these verbs ends in the “n” sound.

Group 5: All different + Past participle ends in “en”

When memorizing this group of verbs, remember that each of the three tenses will be different, and all of these verbs have a past participle that ends in “en.”

Group 6: Other

And this group consists of a few verbs that don’t really follow any same patter.

* NOTE: In a prior post, I explain when to use “shined” and when to use “shone.”

** NOTE: The verb “to be” is not included in this list; however, the conjugations are widely known. For those with any doubts:

To be:

Present

I am

You are

He/She/It is

We are

They are

Simple past

I was

You were

He/She/It was

We were

They were

Past participle:

I have been

You have been

He/She/It has been

We have been

They have been

I hope this detailed guide of irregular verbs in English helps!

Please, don’t wait to run into me in person to request clarification of a grammar point. Tweet me: @Snowflake_Story or @JillBarletti.

Remember that good grammar is important!

And it’s never too late to learn.

Reading is the best way to introduce children to proper grammar.

I invite you to take a look at our bilingual and single-language personalized children’s books.

Because they’re written by your fairy godmother of grammar, you know the grammar will be correct!