English tips: Study hacks to help school-goers master irregular verbs 

English can be a strange language that appears to defy its own rules at times.  Irregular verbs, contradict the general rules of verb. They don't follow the usual guidelines for generating past tense. For example, to want is a regular verb; thus, the past tense of ‘To want’ will become ‘wanted’. However, to begin is an irregular verb and hence, but the past is ‘began’. Did you notice the difference? In a regular verb, ‘ed’ is added to its past tense, which is not the case with irregular verbs. So, how do you make your young learners master irregular verbs? Let’s find out below. 

Try to group the common irregular verbs together 
Well, irregular verbs do not follow any rules and that’s the trouble with remembering them. However, they do have some pattern of sorts. Do not attempt memorising the irregular verbs in an alphabetical order. Instead, group the verbs that remain the same in the past, present and past participle, such as ‘cost’ and ‘set’; verbs that are the same in past form but different in the present, such as ‘breed, bred’ and ‘shoot, shot’ and verbs that end in ‘-en’ in the past participle, such as ‘speak, spoken’ and ‘wake, woken’. Ask your child to look through the list of irregular verbs and find patterns on their own. 

Learn irregular verbs along with different forms of tenses 

By learning irregular verbs from the start, your children can make life easier for themselves in the future. When kids learn a new verb, they should concentrate on learning the tenses as well. For instance, children should not just learn that stealing is defined as taking something without permission. They should also be aware that its simple past tense is stole, and the past participle is stolen. 

Smart Tip: Help kids understand the dual benefits of knowing new words as well as different forms of tenses simultaneously. 

Help kids memorise the 10 most common irregular verbs  
Not all irregular verbs are commonly used. Children might not hear the word ‘broadcast’ too often and come across the word ‘abide’ only in a phrase like ‘law abiding citizen’ or someone who follows the law. Hence, they must be encouraged to prioritise learning the 10 most common irregular verbs to begin with. Encourage them to start with the following words listed as present, past, and past participle: 

Say, said, said; Go, went, gone; Know, knew, known; 

Come, came, come; Get, got, gotten; Give, gave, given; 

Become, became, become; Find, found, found;  

Think, thought, thought; See, saw, seen. 

Segregating these irregular verbs will ensure a better recall in the child’s mind and help them learn other irregular verbs easily. 

Make a few lists containing irregular verbs  
Create a list of the irregular verbs and post them in places where your children might see them throughout the day. Tape the list to the back of your coffee machine, the study table, and even the bathroom wall. Just a few minutes a day spent looking at the list will help your kids recall those confusing irregular verbs within no time. Once the kids feel that they’ve memorised the full list, they can move on to the next group of verbs.