How to Teach Irregular Verbs: 8 ESL Activities

Your students learn went in their first month and still say I didn't went a year later. The problem is rarely the list. It is the order the verbs are taught in, and how little the students use them after the test.

English has around 200 irregular verbs, but the ones students need first are also the most common verbs in the language: be, have, do, say, go, get, make, know, think, take, see, come. Every one of them is irregular. This post gives you a teaching order that works, eight activities for adult and teen classes, and a free game pack to print.

The activities at a glance

#	Activity	Level	Skill
1	Pattern sort	A1-B1	Forms
2	Cover the columns	A1-A2	Forms
3	The did ladder	A1-B1	Questions
4	Verb bingo with a twist	A1-B1	Listening
5	Chain story	A2-B1	Speaking
6	Two truths and a lie	A2-B2	Speaking
7	Gap cards from their own sentences	A2-B1	Writing
8	One bad day	A2-B1	Writing

Free · printable PDFIrregular Verbs Game PackPattern sort cards, a verb table grouped by pattern, and chain story cards with openings from adult life. Students find the patterns, learn the forms, then tell a story with them.65 verbs in 9 patterns30 pattern sort cards24 story cardsA1 to B1Teacher's versionDownload the free PDF Teacher's versionUS Letter: student · teacher

Teach irregular verbs in this order

Most mistakes with irregular verbs come from meeting everything at once: the past form, the participle, questions and negatives. Split them up.

1.Regular verbs first

Students need -ed before they can notice what breaks the rule. Spend one lesson on spelling (studied, stopped) and the three sounds of -ed (worked, played, wanted). Then irregular verbs arrive as the exception, not as a second list to memorise.

Free worksheet for step 1

Past Simple Regular Verbs covers the spelling rules and the three -ed sounds, with a teacher's version and answers.

Past Simple Regular VerbsA1A2FreeWorksheetOpen the free worksheet →

2.Group the verbs by pattern, not by alphabet

An alphabetical list puts buy next to become, which share nothing. A pattern list puts buy, bring, think, catch, teach together, because they all end in -ought or -aught. Students remember groups, and they can guess where a new verb belongs.

Patterns to put on the boardNo changecut, put, let-ought / -aughtbuy, bring, teachi, a, using, drink, swimParticiple in -ntake, eat, write

3.Start with the verbs they need this week

Twenty verbs is plenty for a first round. Pick the ones your students will use to talk about their weekend: went, had, saw, got, made, took, came, ate, bought, met. Add more only when these come out without a pause.

4.Then questions and negatives

This is where I didn't went comes from. Once did or didn't appears, the verb goes back to its base form, and students who have just learned went do not want to let it go. Practise the switch on its own: I went. I didn't go. Did you go?

A worksheet for steps 3 and 4

Irregular Verbs drills twenty common past forms, then the did and didn't switch, then puts the verbs into a short story.

Irregular VerbsA1A2ProWorksheetSee the Pro lesson →

5.Then stories

The past simple exists to tell stories, so finish every round with one. A story makes students choose the verb, not just recall it, and they hear each other's mistakes.

Leave the third column (taken, eaten, written) until the present perfect. Students who learn three forms at once mix up I went and I have gone for months.

When the third form arrives

Past Simple vs Present Perfect is a free worksheet on finished and unfinished time, so the participle comes with a reason to use it.

Past Simple vs Present PerfectB1B2FreeWorksheetOpen the free worksheet →

8 activities for teaching irregular verbs

Activities 1 to 3 build the forms. Activities 4 to 8 make students use them, from quick games to a full story.

1of 8A1-B110 minFormsIn the free game pack

Pattern sort

How it works

Give each group 24 verb cards, each showing all three forms: buy, bought, bought.
Groups sort them into piles that change in the same way. Do not name the patterns first.
Groups explain their piles. Then hand out the pattern cards to label them, and give one new verb to place.

Why it works

Sorting makes students compare the forms, which a list never does. When they place a new verb correctly, they have learned the pattern, not just the word. Play it before students see a verb table, or the table does the thinking for them.

Free printableThe Irregular Verbs Game Pack has the 24 verb cards and 6 pattern cards ready to cut, with the patterns named in the teacher's version.Download the free PDFUS Letter: PDF

2of 8A1-A25 minFormsIn the free game pack

Cover the columns

How it works

Pairs take the verb table and cover the past and participle columns with a piece of paper.
One student reads the infinitive, the partner gives the past form. Swap after one group.
Next lesson, cover the infinitive column and go backwards: brought? Bring.

Why it works

It is a drill, but a short one, and students test each other instead of waiting for you. Going backwards matters: in a real conversation they hear brought and have to know what it means.

3of 8A1-B110 minQuestions

The did ladder

How it works

Say a sentence in the past: I went to the cinema.
The first student turns it into a negative, the next into a question, the next answers it.
Speed up as they get it right. Any didn't went sends the ladder back to the start.

ExampleStatementI went to the cinema.NegativeI didn't go to the cinema.QuestionDid you go to the cinema?AnswerNo, I didn't.

Why it works

It practises the one moment that causes most irregular verb mistakes: the switch back to the base form after did.

4of 8A1-B115 minListening

Verb bingo with a twist

How it works

Write 25 infinitives on the board. Each student draws a 4 by 4 grid and fills it with the past forms of any 16 of them.
In groups, students take turns saying a sentence about their own week with "beep" for the verb, then the infinitive: On Sunday I beep a cake. Make.
Everyone marks made if it is on their grid. A full row only wins if the player reads it back as sentences.

Why it works

Ordinary bingo checks recognition. Here students have to produce the past form in their head before they can mark it, the sentences are about their real week, and the winner uses every word aloud. Students run the game, so you are free to listen for mistakes.

5of 8A2-B115 minSpeakingIn the free game pack

Chain story

How it works

Groups of four get one opening line (Last Friday, my boss called me at eleven at night.) and a face-down pile of verb cards.
Each player draws a card and adds one sentence with that verb in the past, starting with the word on the card: Suddenly, I lost my phone.
The group checks the form before the next turn. The last player ends with In the end, ... and one student retells the whole story.

ExampleOpeningLast Friday, my boss called me at eleven at night.Card: lose · SuddenlySuddenly, I lost my phone.Card: find · LuckilyLuckily, my neighbour found it in the lift.

Why it works

Nobody controls the plot, so students have to choose a past form on the spot and make it fit someone else's sentence. Words like suddenly, luckily, because of that turn a list of verbs into a story, and the retell gives every form a second outing.

Free printableThe Irregular Verbs Game Pack has four opening cards and 20 verb cards, each with the word to start with.Download the free PDFUS Letter: PDF

6of 8A2-B215 minSpeaking

Two truths and a lie

How it works

Each student writes three sentences about their past, with a different irregular verb in each. One is false.
They read them to a group. The group asks follow-up questions with did before guessing the lie.
Higher levels must answer the questions without hesitating, even about the lie.

Why it works

The follow-up questions are the real practice: Where did you meet him? What did you eat? Students hear the past forms in answers and the base forms in questions, again and again.

A full lesson on true stories

Childhood Stories gets students to share funny stories from when they were young, with the past forms from this list.

Childhood StoriesA2B1ProSee the Pro lesson →

7of 8A2-B110 minWriting

Gap cards from their own sentences

How it works

Collect sentences students say in class during the week: I ate a snail in Paris.
Write each one on a card with a gap and the base form: Ana ___ (eat) a snail in Paris.
At the end of the week, groups fill the gaps and guess who said each sentence.

Why it works

The sentences belong to the students, so they remember them. You also get a record of the verbs they actually use, which tells you what to teach next.

8of 8A2-B120 minWriting

One bad day

How it works

Give students a list of eight irregular verbs: wake, forget, lose, fall, break, spend, leave, go.
In pairs, they write the story of a terrible day using all eight, in any order.
Pairs read their story aloud. The class votes for the worst day.

Why it works

Unlike the chain story, pairs plan this one and write it down, so it is the place to check spelling and the order of events. Bad days are funnier than good ones, so students want to listen to each other.

Turn it into a lesson

One Of Those Days is a full A1-A2 lesson on frustrating days when everything goes wrong, built around irregular verbs.

One Of Those DaysA1A2ProSee the Pro lesson →

Irregular Verbs Game PackReady to play? Print the pattern sort cards, the verb table and the story cards for activities 1, 2 and 5.Download the free PDF

Mistakes your students will make

Teacher's reference

The irregular verb slips to listen for

Students say	Better	Why
I didn't went.	I didn't go.	After did or didn't, the verb goes back to the base form.
Did you saw it?	Did you see it?	The same rule in questions: did carries the past.
I buyed new shoes.	I bought new shoes.	The -ed rule applied to an irregular verb. A sign the student knows the rule.
She brang a cake.	She brought a cake.	A pattern used too far: bring looks like sing, but it belongs to the -ought group.
I have went there.	I have gone there.	Past form used as a participle. Teach the third column with the present perfect.

Two of these mistakes are good news. Buyed and brang mean the student is using a rule or a pattern instead of guessing. Praise the thinking, then give the right form.

Lessons for the past simple

Level	Lesson	What students do
A1-A2	Past Simple Regular Verbs · free	Spelling and the three -ed sounds
A1-A2	Irregular Verbs	Twenty past forms, then did and didn't, then a story
A1-A2	From Pictures to Stories	Tell a story from pictures with sequencing words
A1-A2	One Of Those Days	Describe a day when everything went wrong
A2-B1	Childhood Stories	Share funny stories from childhood
A2-B1	Ghost Stories · free	Read and retell spooky stories
A2-B1	Past Simple vs Past Continuous	Background and events, with timelines
B1-B2	Past Simple vs Present Perfect · free	Finished and unfinished time