Learning English is really needed nowadays. It’s a language that can be spoken almost everywhere in the world, and you can’t avoid it even in the comfort of your own home. But what can I do if I’m not good at English? The only way to learn English really well is to keep practising and speaking. Otherwise, we won’t improve much in this respect.
English is not a difficult language in itself. You just need to not be afraid of it and use it actively. To do this, however, you need to know the basic words and phrases.
That’s why we have prepared 2 short examples of using irregular verbs in English tenses for you to take away something new today.
Irregular verbs – what are they?
As you probably all know, verbs come in 2 types in English:
– Regular verbs
– Irregular verbs
Irregular verbs are verbs that we have to learn by heart. We need them to form sentences in different tenses (past, pre-present…). Each irregular verb has 3 forms. You will learn how to use these verbs and when to choose which form in the following examples.
The verb HAVE
For the verb HAVE, you need to know the 3 basic forms. This is because it is an irregular verb that needs to be learned by heart. The past tense of HAVE is one of the reasons why we should master this verb in all its forms. Don’t worry, it’s not that hard. The 3 forms of our verb HAVE are:
Forms of the verb HAVE
Infinitive: HAVE /hæv/
Past tense: HAD /hæd/
Past Participle: HAD /hæd/
Past simple tense of HAVE
This tense shows an event in the past that has already taken place (most often following some interval of time). The event could have happened once, but it could also have happened repeatedly. The past simple tense does not take into account the singular/plural or the 3rd person.
To form the past simple we use the verb in the 2nd form or past tense HAD.
We create negative sentences by using the infinitive HAVE in combination with the adjective “did not/didn’t”.
Note that for negative sentences we do not use hadn’t but “DID NOT HAVE”!
Examples:
I had a book at home. – 2nd form
He hadn’t a pen.“ – wrong
He did not have a pen. – Infinitive
They had a lot of paintings. – 2nd form
Past tense of the verb HAVE
We use this tense for events that took place in the past and had a certain duration. For the past continuous tense, we use the verb in the base form (infinitive) “HAVE” in combination with the ending -ing. This gives us the verb HAVING.
We always add the verb “was/ were” before the verb in the form HAVING for this tense. To express negative sentences, instead of “was/were” we use their negative forms, namely “was not/wasn’t” or “were not/weren’t”.
Use of WAS and WERE
We use the verb WAS for 1st and 3rd person singular sentences (I, He/She/It).
We use the verb was in all other person forms (You, We, They).
Examples:
Last month we were having a really good time.
Last month we weren’t having really a good time.
Learning a foreign language is not rocket science, you just need to know how to do it. Everyone thinks it takes natural talent to learn English. But that’s not true. The key to learning properly is perseverance and a commitment to learning something new. So definitely don’t give up and you will get results in no time.
