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How can I teach irregular verbs to JSS 1 students so that they will understand very well

Philip · Accepted Answer

Start with those that change only the middle vowel:  sing-sang-sung, sink-sank-sunk etc.  Then go to the most common of verbs:  go-went-gone; am/is/are-was/were-been; have/has-had.  I think I would then go to the crazy ones:  bring-brought; teach-taught; light-lit.  [Try to make this fun by asking students if they can 'guess' a past tense before showing them the correct form.]  Be sure to let them know that we have only a few - nothing like Portuguese, for example.

CalifJim · Answer

AnonymousHow can I teach irregular verbs

Group them by their similarities, beginning with those that have three distinct forms. This helps to emphasize that even regular verbs have three forms, even though the past and the past participle are the same in the case of regular verbs.

With PP in -(e)n: grow, grew, grown; know, knew, known; ...; take, took, taken; shake, shook, shaken; ...; drive, drove, driven; write, wrote, written; ...; show, showed; shown; mow, mowed, mown; ...; wake, woke, woken; steal, stole, stolen; ...

With all forms in -ng: sing, sang, sung; ring, rang, rung; ... or -n: begin, began, begun.

Later you can do groups with only one form: let, set, hit, put, cut, burst, ... Those are easy once you remember which ones are like this.

Then the groups that have two forms, like the regular verbs: send, sent; feed, fed; meet, met; ... These can be a nasty bunch!
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If you want to do them in order of frequency of use, then note that these are the top 30. Be sure your students have mastered at least these. They represent about 20% of the irregular verbs.

put, let, set, have, make, stand, tell, meet, hold, hear, keep, feel, mean, leave, say, find, bring, think, begin, come, get, show, give, see, take, know, write, do, go, be
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Note also that students may remember the past participles of verbs better if they encounter them in their readings, even when the participles merely modify. English has hundreds of such expressions, so it may help to point them out when they occur in readings and ask which infinitive form they are based on.

hurt feelings, wide-spread panic, burnt steak, well-told tale, badly lit apartment, overheard remarks, lost child, the spoken word, the written word, a stolen glance, a worn-out shoe, spun glass, a broken promise, frozen dessert, beaten eggs

lessons learned, sheep led to slaughter, fish caught with a net, a car built to last, words spoken in anger, examples drawn from real life, a car driven by policemen, an event seen by all, dogs bred for hunting, fabrics woven by experts, products stolen from grocery stores, someone lost in thought, paper torn to shreds, magazines spread on the floor, a decision made in haste

blown glass sold by the pound, long forgotten things kept in the spare bedroom, long held secrets never told by anyone, badly chosen words spoken in haste, a fallen leaf blown away by the wind, a tightly bound package left on the doorstep

And my favorite:
a poorly fed parakeet kept hidden in a stolen cage

At some point you might even have students make up phrases like these, using as many past participles as possible, or at least finding them in given texts.
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It's also a good idea to have students become familiar with different ways of using individual irregular verbs, especially in idioms:

make a choice; make a deal; make up for (s.t.); make way for (s.o.); make a speech; make a cake
take the lead; take a shot at; take up a collection; take a break
give (s.o.) a scare; give it a try; give (s.o.) the creeps; give (s.o.) a ride
hold a meeting; hold a sale; hold up under pressure

Some of the exercises with these might include writing sentences using the infinitive form, the past, and the present perfect. You're going to give them a scare; You gave them a scare; You've given them a scare.

CJ

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