🎯 Why This Matters
Essential for past tense and perfect tenses.
Accurate past tense and participle usage.
🇪🇸 The Challenge
Memorization. Spanish has irregular verbs too, but the English irregular verb patterns don't match Spanish patterns.
🇲🇽🇨🇴🇦🇷 Adding -ed to irregulars
Problem: Regular verbs take -ed, so learners overgeneralize
Watch out: Saying 'goed', 'buyed', 'bringed', 'thinked'
✅ Fix: There's no shortcut - must memorize the most common 100 irregular verbs
🧠 Mental Note: Most common verbs are irregular! Start with: be, have, do, go, make, see, take, get, come, know
🇪🇸 False friends in patterns
Problem: Spanish irregular patterns don't predict English ones
Watch out: Assuming ir-fue will help with go-went (it's coincidentally similar!)
✅ Fix: Learn English irregular verbs independently from Spanish
🧠 Visual Explanation (The Mental Fix)
The Verb Families
Learn verbs in FAMILIES that share the same pattern. It's easier than memorizing each one separately!
🗣️ Pronunciation Guide
How Spanish speakers should pronounce this structure:
Similar sounding pairs
Spanish Habit: Confusing bought/brought, taught/thought
English Reality: These pairs have different vowel sounds
Examples:
- bought /bɔːt/ vs brought /brɔːt/
- taught /tɔːt/ vs thought /θɔːt/
- fell /fel/ vs felt /felt/
Practice: Listen carefully to minimal pairs. The differences are small but important!
📖 How It Works
Teacher Recommendation: Self-study friendly
Time Investment: 10 hours
🔑 Signal Words (Memory Anchors)
These words/phrases appear with this structure:
| English | Spanish | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Base → Past → Participle | Infinitivo → Pasado → Participio | go → went → gone |
| yesterday (past) | ayer | I went yesterday (simple past form) |
| have/has + participle | he/ha + participio | I have gone (perfect form) |
| was/were + participle | fue + participio | It was done (passive form) |
💬 Real Examples
Let's see this structure in action with correct vs incorrect usage:
Example 1: Common mistake: go-went-gone
✅ CORRECT: "I went to the store. I have gone there before."
🇪🇸 Translation: "Fui a la tienda. He ido ahí antes."
❌ COMMON MISTAKE: "I goed to the store. / I have went there."
Why wrong? GO is irregular: go-went-gone (not 'goed', not 'have went')
Example 2: Bought vs brought confusion
✅ CORRECT: "I bought a book. / She brought her friend."
🇪🇸 Translation: "Compré un libro. / Ella trajo a su amigo."
❌ COMMON MISTAKE: "I brought a book. (meaning purchased)"
Why wrong? BOUGHT = purchased (buy-bought-bought). BROUGHT = carried (bring-brought-brought)
Example 3: Done vs did
✅ CORRECT: "I did my homework. / I have done my homework."
🇪🇸 Translation: "Hice mi tarea. / He hecho mi tarea."
❌ COMMON MISTAKE: "I have did my homework."
Why wrong? DID for past simple, DONE with auxiliaries (have/has)
✏️ Practice Exercises
Ready to test your understanding? Let's practice!