IRREGULAR VERBS

Do you need to learn the English irregular verbs and you have just received a list of them in alphabetic order from your English teacher? Then this article is going to make you smile and celebrate that you have finally found a shortcut. You probably will end up saying something like:

"Why has nobody told me this shortcut before?"

And my answer is... because it requires a bit of creativity and time to spot the patterns.

I invite you to experience the discovery on your own pace or rhythm. So, if you want to challenge your philological vision, stop reading here and take your irregular verbs list with only one intention in mind: finding 8 different patterns. If you don't have them, ask me through email, I'll send them to you.

After you have spent some time on your own (let's say at least 15 minutes) carefully observing them with all your attention as one contemplates a sunset or the face of your loved ones or just the ants carrying some huge green leaf in your garden... then, only then, you will be prepared to review with me the irregular verbs in English without being in a hurry.

You'll see that exists a way to learn them off by heart so much easier than learning them in alphabetic order.

You will agree with me that we are not robots and that we, humans, have an infinite capability of connecting ideas with our own resources (imagination, experiences, reason, symbolic mind...) to learn something and use it with a meaningful approach. Thus, here I give you one approach that I discovered just by studying them on my own.

I found the 8 patterns with a tremendous joy.

Imagine my face.

Oh! regularity!, the saving grace of our beautiful cosmos, hidden behind the apparent shapeless irregularity of sound and spelling, that anyone before this exercise probably didn't see and misinterpreted as a meaningless chaos.

I gave them colour to facilitate the memorization and recitation. Beauty (in hebrew תִּפְאֶרֶת Tiferet) is a must when it comes to learning languages and a handy shortcut as well. Here you have the 8 different irregularities found and coloured.

Irregular patterns in irregular English verbs

The exercise I normally ask to my basic level coachee people (levels A2-B1) is either to write them one by one in rows with a nice English Lettering or to print the list of irregular verbs and read them out loud several times. (here the list of irregular verbs organized by patterns)

Then when they have already got familiarized with their sound (using Wordreference to hear the UK and US accent ), I ask them to cut them in rows and place them in a box with 8 coloured departments following the same range of colours I am showing you here.

English Lettering with the Irregular Verbs

The colours are given with meaning too, for instance: red ones are the most irregular verbs, they are frequently used that's why they vary a lot; green verbs are the most natural ones, as they do the same in the columns of past and participle, the natural pattern of regular verbs (remember, those that end in "-ed" and are out of this irregular verb list, here I show you some REGULAR VERBS)

The rest of the colours I explained them in my video bellow, but I also follow my intuition, feelings and real teaching experiences at the time of using colour. Pink ones are to me and usually to most of my coachees quite funny, they make us smile with the variation of just one vowel I/A/U.

This box can be used as a game to play with classmates or on your own to memorize the famous English irregular verbs and make an impact in your acquisition of your second language.

If you wan to hear my video explaining the irregular verbs here you have it, and don't forget to subscribe to my channel to continue practicing English with me.

Bye for now!

Last version of this game was improved and performed with students from 1st to 4th of ESO during the last few weeks of November 2024. Here the instructions we gave them:

Proa+ Project Irregular Verbs Box by Ana Language Coach

Irregular Verbs Game by Ana Language Coach