Past Simple: Irregular Verbs
English has dozens of irregular past forms that simply have to be memorised: go → went, have → had, see → saw, do → did, come → came, drink → drank, eat → ate, give → gave, find → found, get → got, take → took. There’s no spelling rule that predicts them — but the did/didn’t + base form rule still applies in negatives and questions (I didn’t go, not didn’t went; Did you see the film?, not Did you saw?). A small but useful sub-group keeps the same form across tenses: put → put, cut → cut, let → let, cost → cost, read → read (pronounced /red/ in the past).
This worksheet drills the 22 most common A2 irregular verbs in isolation, in connected narrative, and in personalised production.
Worksheet preview
What’s inside:
- Grammar Box with the most common irregular verbs and the same-form sub-group (put, cut, let, cost, hit, read)
- Fill-in-the-past-simple table: 22 base forms paired with their past simple — the A2 high-frequency core list
- Gap-fill in a birthday story: complete the narrative with the past simple form of irregular verbs from the table
- Personalised production: write four sentences about a special day in your past using four different irregular verbs
- Full Answer Key plus Teacher Notes with memorisation strategies and a pair-work storytelling extension
Common mistakes addressed: mixing the past form with did (Did you went?), regularising irregulars (goed, taked, eated), and confusion of read/read (same spelling, different pronunciation).
For: Adult and teenage learners (14+) at CEFR A2, in pre-intermediate classes, 1:1 lessons, or self-study. Mastery of high-frequency irregular verbs is essential for Cambridge A2 Key (KET) and B1 Preliminary (PET) Writing, where past-time storytelling is a recurring task. Part of the Past Tenses collection — the natural next step is Past Simple vs Past Continuous, which combines irregular verbs with the background-action tense for full storytelling at B1.
