Past tense verbs are hard for people who are learning English as a second language because there are many irregular past tense verbs. You need to memorize the past tense form of these words.

In this lesson, we will look at some of the most common irregular verbs. These are ones that you must know and memorize if you want to speak English.

drive → drove	fly → flew	give → gave
hear → heard	swim → swam	sell → sold
sleep → slept	speak → spoke	sit → sat
begin → began	break → broke	bring → brought
take → took	do → did	pay → paid

Now that you know the past tense forms of these verbs, you should be able to make your own sentences using the past tense verbs in English.

Example Sentences

• I drove my car to the airport and left it there.
• The police drove around the neighborhood.
• The taxi drove around the city.


• The bird flew high in the sky.
• The children flew a kite in the park.
• The plane flew through the storm.


• I gave her some money because she needed it.
• She gave me a delicious apple pie.
• The teacher gave the children a lot of homework yesterday.


• I heard a strange sound last night.
• She heard a man shouting.
• They heard the ambulance coming.


• We swam in the lake yesterday afternoon.
• The fish swam around our boat during our ocean tour.
• The children swam in the pool all day.


• He sold his old car.
• They sold their old house a week ago.
• The owner sold his company last month.


• I slept on the couch last night because my wife was angry with me.
• My wife slept alone in our bed because she was angry with me.
• The dog slept on the floor in the living room.


• I spoke to my boss about a promotion.
• The parents and the teacher spoke together about the boy.
• They spoke at the meeting.


• We sat together at the show.
• I sat in the back of the classroom in high school.
• We sat in the park and ate ice cream.


• The movie began on time.
• The speech began and everyone got quiet.
• They began the show at 9:30 p.m.


• The kids broke their dad's camera.
• I broke my laptop yesterday.
• She broke my nose on accident.


• She brought her son to work with her.
• They brought their computers to the class.
• He brought a wonderful cake to the party.


• I did my homework last night.
• She did her work during lunch.
• They did a great job on their project.


• She paid for dinner last night.
• They paid for their son to go to university.
• I paid for her ticket yesterday.

English Conversation 1

A) We drove from New York to California.
B) Are you crazy? That is so far!
A) It took 3 days, but it was a lot of fun. We saw many cool things and spent a lot of good time together.
B) Actually, that sounds pretty cool.

English Conversation 2

A) I sold my house last week.
B) Good for you. Did you buy a new house?
A) Not yet.
B) Then, where did you sleep last night?
A) I slept at my friend's house. I hope to buy a house sometime this month.
B) I'm sure your friend hopes that too.

Now try making your own sentences and questions with the English past tense verbs we studied in this lesson. If you practice a lot, it will help you improve your English and remember this English grammar point well.