Sing, sang, sung…

Finn Hello and welcome to 6 Minute Vocabulary. I’m Finn.

Catherine
And I’m Catherine.

Finn In today’s programme we’re talking about irregular verbs.

Catherine Yes, and as you know, there are lots of irregular verbs in English.

Finn Lots and lots. Some, like write , have different forms for the past simple and past participle: wrote and written .

Catherine Yes and it’s not always easy to remember all those different forms!

Finn It’s not. Today, though, we’re going to explain how some of these verbs can be grouped into patterns to help remember the different forms.

Catherine We’ll give you lots of examples…

Finn We’ll have a quiz…

Catherine …and we’ll leave you with a top tip for learning vocabulary.

Finn But first, let’s hear my interview with singer-songwriter Andrea.

Catherine While you listen, think about this question: Who hasn’t spoken to Andrea for a long time?

INSERT Finn Hi, Andrea. Now, tell us: when did you begin to sing ?

Andrea
I sang in the school choir and I began to sing in bands when I was just ten.

Finn Oh, wow. So how many songs have you written

Andrea
Over a hundred. I wrote one just before I drove here.

Finn
Right. And Andrea, I’m sure you have broken many men ‘s hearts. Tell us, who was the first?

Andrea
Oh, he was a boy called Marcus. I knew him at school. We grew up on the same street. He ‘s not spoken to me since we broke up.

Finn
Since you broke up, that sounds bad. Thank you for coming and speaking to us today, Andrea.

Andrea
Thanks for having me.

STING

Finn
And there we are. So, we asked you: Who hasn’t spoken to Andrea for a long time?

Catherine
And the answer is: Marcus. They haven’t spoken since they broke up.

Finn Broke is the past simple of the verb break and it belongs to our first group of verbs. It has the pattern break , broke , broken .

Catherine That’s right, the past simple is broke and the past participle is broken .

Finn Listen to this clip. Can you hear another verb with the same pattern? Here’s a clue. The word rhymes with broken .

INSERT CLIP 1

Andrea
Oh, he was a boy called Marcus. I knew him at school. We grew up on the same street. He ‘s not spoken to me since we broke up.

Catherine OK, and spoken rhymes with broken . The verb speak forms its past simple and past participle in the same way as break .

Finn So it’s speak , spoke , spoken …

Catherine And speak and break are pronounced differently although they both have e-a-k at the end.

Finn They do. Now, another verb with the same pattern is wake .

Catherine … so it’s wake , woke , woken .

Finn … although we spell wake , w-a-k-e. It’s not spelt e-a-k at the end. Now, in the interview, we had two other verbs with a different pattern.

Catherine That’s right, we had the past forms knew and grew . Andrea knew Marcus at school and she grew up on the same street.

Finn Yes. These are the past simple forms of know and grow .

Catherine So, it’s know , knew , known …

Finn Grow , grew , grown …

Catherine Another verb with this pattern is blow .

Finn So it’s blow, blew, blown .

Catherine So we’ve got two groups. The first one is verbs like speak , spoke , spoken …

Finn And we have in our second group, verbs like grow , grew , grown . Listen to this second clip and see if you can spot two more patterns. Here ‘s a clue: listen to words that rhyme or have similar pronunciations.

INSERT CLIP 2 Finn
When did you begin to sing

Andrea
I sang in the school choir and I began to sing in bands when I was just ten.

Finn
Oh, wow. How many songs have you written ?

Andrea
Over a hundred. I wrote one just before I drove here.

Catherine Did you hear the patterns begin … began and sing … sang?

Finn So, this pattern is begin , began , begun …

Catherine Exactly, and we’ve got sing , sang , sung …

Finn In the clip, we also had another pattern - wrote … written . So, that’s the past simple and the past participle of write .

Catherine We heard another verb with this pattern… drove , which is the past simple of drive .

Finn And the past participle is…

Finn … driven . So that’s drive , drove , driven .

IDENT
6 Minute Vocabulary from BBC Learning English

Catherine And now for a quiz. I’ll give you two parts of a verb. You have to complete the pattern. Ready? Number one: swim, swam, .

Finn … swum .

Catherine Well done if you got that right. Number two: speak, , spoken.

Finn … spoke .

Catherine Correct. Number three: , wrote, written.

Finn … write .

Catherine
And that’s the end of the quiz. Well done if you got them right.

Finn
And now, today’s top tip for learning vocabulary: combine irregular verbs with the same pattern in a short rhyme or story. The pattern of the rhyme will help you remember the different forms.

Catherine There’s more about this at bbclearningenglish.com. Join us again for more 6 Minute Vocabulary.

Both
Bye!