English for Kids Step by Step: Irregular Verbs Puzzle Flashcards (Part 1)

Today I have a wonderful opportunity to share my new set of irregular verbs puzzle flashcards with fellow teachers and parents. Everybody knows all English verbs can be divided into two groups: regular and irregular. Past Simple and Past Participle forms of the regular verbs are built by adding -ed to the main form. Irregular verbs aren’t formed according to this general rule. There’s no rule of building them at all. Children should just remember these forms by heart.

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The kit has 105 irregular verbs puzzle flashcards

Teaching irregular verbs to ESL students can be a rather challenging task. There are many types of activities a teacher can use while introducing this grammar topic to children. Based on my experience, I’ve designed a colorful set of irregular verbs flashcards in the form of puzzles as an interesting way of practicing irregular verbs while playing. Each puzzle contains an image illustrating an irregular verb. Then there are three pieces with the Infinitive, Past Simple and Past Participle forms of the verb. Below you can see some examples of using these forms in sentences. I used only such tenses as Present Simple, Past Simple and Present Perfect so that kids could focus on these irregular forms without getting lost in the complicated system of English tenses and structures.

I would also like to emphasize that learning irregular verbs in the alphabetical order is always very difficult to children because these forms are associated with nothing in their minds. I think the best way to learn irregular verbs is reading a story, selecting regular and irregular verbs from it and use them in different speech activities based on the story. But if you wish to teach just irregular forms you can group them by rhyme.

For my set of irregular verbs puzzle flashcards I selected 105 most common irregular verbs and grouped them in a special rhyme-based way as seen in the following list:

Be – was, were – been
See – saw – seen

come – came – come
become – became – become

go – went – gone
do – did – done

make – made – made
have – had – had
pay – paid – paid
say – said – said
lay – laid – laid
lie – lay – lain
read – read – read
lead – led – led
feed – fed – fed
hold – held – held

sit – sat – sat
meet – met – met
feel – felt – felt
smell – smelt – smelt
leave – left – left
send – sent – sent
spend – spent – spent
lend – lent – lent
deal – dealt – dealt
mean – meant – meant
dream – dreamt – dreamt
sleep – slept – slept
keep – kept – kept
sweep – swept – swept
build – built – built
spoil – spoilt – spoilt
burn – burnt – burnt
learn – learnt – learnt
hear – heard – heard

slide – slid – slid
light – lit – lit

hit – hit – hit
let – let – let
set – set – set
spread – spread – spread
cut – cut – cut
shut – shut – shut
put – put – put
hurt – hurt – hurt
burst – burst – burst
cost – cost – cost

lose – lost – lost
get – got – got

tell – told – told
sell – sold – sold

buy – bought – bought
bring – brought – brought
fight – fought – fought
think – thought – thought
teach – taught – taught
catch – caught – caught

fall – fell – fallen
know – knew – known
throw – threw – thrown
blow – blew – blown
fly – flew – flown
grow – grew – grown
show – showed – shown
shine – shone – shone
draw – drew – drawn

drink – drank – drunk
sink – sank – sunk
shrink – shrank – shrunk
swim – swam – swum
run – ran – run
begin – began – begun
sing – sang – sung
ring – rang – rung
hang – hung – hung
stick – stuck – stuck
dig – dug – dug
win – won – won

wear – wore – worn
bear – bore – born

speak – spoke – spoken
break – broke – broken
wake – woke – woken
steal – stole – stolen
choose – chose – chosen
freeze – froze – frozen

shake – shook – shaken
take – took – taken

drive – drove – driven
give – gave – given
forgive – forgave – forgiven

hide – hid – hidden
ride – rode – ridden
forbid – forbade – forbidden

write – wrote – written
bite – bit – bitten
eat – ate – eaten
beat – beat – beaten
rise – rose – risen
forget – forgot – forgotten

find – found – found
bind – bound – bound
wind – wound – wound

stand – stood – stood
understand – understood – understood

This post contains the first 16 irregular verbs puzzle flashcards.