Irregular Verbs Worksheet: Past Tense Practice, Grades 3-8
A good irregular verbs worksheet makes students do more than copy a list. It asks them to pick the right past form, write it from a cue, and notice when a sentence like “I taked the bus” sounds wrong. The sets below are made for grades 3 to 8 and for English learners, and each one comes with an answer key.
Here are the kinds of tasks that help students learn irregular past tense verbs:
- Multiple choice, where one tempting wrong answer such as “goed” sits beside the real form.
- Fill in the blank with the verb in brackets, for example bring or meet.
- Choose the correct sentence out of two.
- Verbs that stay the same, such as put, cut, hit and cost.
- Rewrite a present tense sentence in the past.
- A short reading passage with questions in the past tense.
In this article (9 sections)
Why irregular verbs take so much repetition
Regular verbs follow one rule: add -ed. Irregular verbs have no such rule. Went, ate, wrote and bought each have to be learned one at a time, and children meet them in speech long before they see them in print. Many young writers go through a stage where they apply the -ed rule to everything and write “runned” or “eated”. That stage shows they understand the rule. The next job is to learn the exceptions, and the only reliable way to do that is to see and use each verb many times in different settings.
This is why a worksheet that repeats the same verbs in different question types works better than a single long list. A student who guesses wrong in a multiple choice item gets another chance a few pages later in a fill in task.
Irregular verbs worksheet options
We read the product page of every pack below. Here is what each one holds.
- The Past Simple Irregular Verbs Worksheets set costs $8.99 and is made for grades 3 to 8. It has 80 questions in four parts of 20: multiple choice, fill in the blank, choose the correct sentence, and a second multiple choice part with verbs whose past form barely changes. The download has four PDF files: a 19 page worksheet, a 15 page answer key, a 41 page teacher key that explains each answer and names the common mistake, and a one page lesson plan. The pages are A4 and print on US Letter with Fit to page.
- The Past Tense Verbs Worksheet for ESL pack costs $4.99, has 32 pages and is listed for grade 7. It covers past simple negatives and questions with did and did not, rewriting present sentences in the past, and a reading passage about a family weekend trip to a cabin, with comprehension questions. It includes a 17 page answer key and a one page lesson plan, and it also prints on US Letter with Fit to page.
All the verb tense packs in one download
The Verb Tense Worksheets Bundle holds six packets and 285 pages for grades 3 to 8. Along with the two sets above it includes a regular and irregular verbs pack, a simple present tense pack, and two present continuous packs. The separate prices add up to $37.94, and the bundle costs $26.56, which saves $11.38 or 30 percent. It makes sense when you teach more than one tense in a year, since every packet comes with its own answer key.
What the 80 question set looks like
The verbs that come up more than once in the Past Simple Irregular Verbs set include go, see, eat, drink, run, swim, begin, throw, blow, fly, write, buy, catch, teach, meet, build, send, break, speak, choose, steal, hide, forget and understand. Put, cut, hit, cost and read appear in the part for verbs that barely change. The product page says this repeat is deliberate, so a student who misses a verb in the first part meets it again in a later part.
The teacher key is useful for mixed ability groups. Each item has a short “why” line, the mistake students tend to make, and a quick tip, such as noticing the vowel shift in drink, drank, drunk. You can hand the key to a student who got an answer wrong and let them read the reason.
How to teach irregular past tense verbs
Start with a story full of mistakes
The lesson plan in the 80 question set opens with a warm up where the teacher tells a story full of grammar mistakes and students catch them. You can do the same with any short story. Read aloud, “Yesterday I goed to the shop and buyed some apples,” and ask students to raise a hand each time they hear a wrong verb. Then write the corrections on the board.
Group the verbs by pattern
Some irregular verbs share a pattern, and groups are easier to remember than 40 separate words.
- Vowel change: sing, sang; swim, swam; begin, began; drink, drank.
- The -ought and -aught endings: buy, bought; catch, caught; teach, taught; think, thought.
- No change: put, cut, hit, cost.
- Completely different: go, went; be, was or were.
Print the groups on a chart and keep it next to the board while students work through the worksheet. For a full reference list to hang up, see our guide to the irregular verbs list.
Pair work and error hunts
The choose the correct sentence part makes a good pair task. Partners read each pair aloud, decide which sentence sounds right, and say why. Hearing the wrong form out loud often helps students notice it. Ask them to correct their own old writing too. A student who finds “I taked” in last week’s journal and fixes it has learned more than one who only circled an answer.
Early finishers and sub plans
Each part of the set stands on its own, so a student who finishes quickly can move on to the next part without help. The product page lists a sub plan and a short homework set among the uses. Print the parts you need and leave the key in a sealed folder for the substitute.
A 30 minute lesson plan
- Spend five minutes on the mistake story and ask students to name the wrong verbs.
- Spend five minutes on one verb group, say the vowel change verbs, and write the present and past forms side by side.
- Give students ten minutes to complete the multiple choice part alone.
- Pair students for five minutes to compare answers and discuss any difference.
- Close with five minutes of checking with the answer key, and ask each student to write down the two verbs they missed most.
On the next day, start with those missed verbs on index cards. A short daily review of five verbs does more than one long session each month.
Support for English learners
English learners often know the idea of the past but not the form. The ESL pack asks for did not plus the base verb in negatives and questions, a rule that surprises many learners because the main verb goes back to its plain form. Write two sentences side by side on the board, “She went home” and “She did not go home,” and ask students what changed. Then move to the worksheet. The reading passage at the end gives them a chance to see the forms in a story and answer questions with full sentences.
For a student who is still building basic vocabulary, cover the multiple choice items first and leave the rewriting task for later in the week. The answer key in the ESL pack adds a short note for each rule, which helps a tutor or parent who is not sure about the grammar.
Which grade for which set
Grades 3 and 4
Use the first two parts of the 80 question set. Work with a small group of ten common verbs first, and keep the chart in sight. Read the questions aloud for students who still decode slowly.
Grades 5 and 6
Students can complete the full set over a week, one part a day. Ask them to write one new sentence of their own for each verb they got wrong.
Grades 7 and 8
The tricky parts, such as verbs that do not change, suit older students who already know the common ones. The ESL pack is listed for grade 7, so it can serve as review for a class with several English learners.
Frequently asked questions
How many questions are in the main irregular verbs set?
The Past Simple Irregular Verbs Worksheets set has four parts of 20 questions, so 80 in total, with an answer key for all of them.
Do the sets include answer keys?
Yes. Both single packs list an answer key, and the 80 question set also has a 41 page teacher key with explanations.
Which grades do these worksheets suit?
The 80 question set is listed for grades 3 to 8. The ESL pack is listed for grade 7. The bundle covers grades 3 to 8.
Can I print them on US Letter paper?
Both single packs say their A4 files print on US Letter with Fit to page. The bundle page does not state a page size, so open the product page of each packet before you print a class set.
