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What are the most common mistakes that English learners make when using irregular verbs?

Glennie Kimbly

As an avid social media user and a non-native English speaker, I have had my fair share of struggles with the irregular verbs in English. I have made countless mistakes that have either made my communication unclear or have just made me look like a fool. But fear not, my friends! I am here to share with you some of the most common mistakes that English learners make when using irregular verbs. And let’s make it fun, shall we?

The first mistake is the classic “forgetting the past participle” mistake. You know the drill, you say something like “I have eat” instead of “I have eaten”. It’s an easy one to make, especially if the verb doesn’t follow the usual pattern (looking at you, swim-swam-swum). So, my tip here is to create a list of irregular verbs and their past participle form and keep it handy until you get the hang of it. Or, you could always just use the infinitive form and avoid the problem altogether: “I have to eat” sounds better than “I have eat” anyway.

Another mistake that I’ve seen a lot is using the wrong tense. For example, saying “I did went to the party” instead of “I went to the party”. It’s important to remember that irregular verbs have different forms for different tenses. So, pay attention to when the action took place and choose the appropriate form. And if you’re unsure, just use the present perfect tense: “I have been to the party” sounds fancy and avoids any tense confusion.

But the mother of all mistakes has to be using the wrong verb altogether. This is especially common with verbs that have similar forms, like “lie” and “lay”. I’m not even sure I know the difference between those two, to be honest. And don’t even get me started on “bring”, “take”, “carry” and “fetch”. My advice here is to consult a dictionary, or ask a native speaker. And if you don’t have access to either of those, just wing it and hope for the best. That’s what I do.

And finally, let’s not forget about those sneaky irregular verbs that don’t follow any pattern whatsoever. You know, the ones that you just have to memorize like “write-wrote-written” or “see-saw-seen”. These ones are a pain, but there’s no way around it. Just keep practicing and eventually, you’ll get them down.

So, there you have it, folks. Some of the most common mistakes that English learners make when using irregular verbs. But don’t worry, we’ve all been there. Just keep practicing, keep learning and most importantly, keep laughing at yourself. After all, what’s the point of learning a language if you can’t make a few mistakes and have a good time doing it?