Are Irregular Verbs Making You Cry?

verbs that change their spelling and sound in upredictable patterns for different tenses. An example is the verb 'eat'. In the past form, it is 'ate', and the form in the perfect tense (called a past participle, but that is not very important) is 'eaten'.

Irregular verbs don't sound like each other very much, so in spoken English their sounds must be memorized. The written forms are also somewhat different and need to be memorized. There are over 350 irregular verbs in modern English (see here). But not all of them are difficult to learn. Some of them, like the verb 'put' are quite easy.

If you learn one verb a day, you could master a difficult portion of English within a year. Some energetic people could easily learn five per day, and be done in a little over three months!

The Way Till Now

I have seen many students with verb lists written out. They study the lists, they study flashcards, they study by writing. And this method works. The hard way.

Now, I think reading and writing are an important way to study. I study that way too. But they are not the only way to study.

And particularly for languages, which are mostly spoken, reading and writing should be supplementary study methods, the help us go faster.

The problem is that for many people, studying by reading and writing is all they know. And reading and writing are convenient.

And quiet. So you can study without disurbing others.

But This is Changing

But thanks to technology that is changing. Now you can listen to recorded English anywhere, easily, and without bothering other people.

And if you have a private space, you can practice speaking while you practice listening. This is the new way.

The New Way

In the new way, Listening is King. When you listen, you remember the sounds. After listening, reading is easy. The reverse is not always true. Listening has been a difficult part of learning English, but that is coming to an end.

Now, with computers and mp3 players, if you listen to something and don't understand, you can play it again. And again. And again!

In fact, now we are starting to break down listening into separate skills. In the past, students said, "I don't understand!"

Then they began to practice using their computers and mp3 players. They did lots of listening practice and drills.

Now my students say, "I couldn't hear the sounds properly," or, "I can't remember the whole sentence, so I don't understand." Their comments are clear and specific. They know their weak points, and how to fix them.

Using techniques like shadowing, and listen and repeat, students can easily master the basic listening skills. From there, they can master listening to and understanding irregular verbs. Then it is a small jump to the high level skills like comprehension.

And now we can go even faster, with spaced repetition. Using a computer-based flashcard system, students can review and practice only the difficult points, and only when they are just beginning to forget. That means they don't waste time practicing skills they already have.

But...

But it costs alot!

I hear some people saying this to me. They tell me that technology is expensive. Well, it may be. On the other hand, studying for hours and hours without building real listening and speaking skills is a waste of time, and that is far more expensive.

Plus, the computer or mp3 player that you buy can be used to study other subjects besides irregular verbs (I use mine to help me study French, traning methods, relaxation techniques, and many more...), and can be shared among family.

Plus, the cost is coming down all the time. If you tell me that it is expensive, that was yesterday. Today it is cheaper. And good shopping can cut the cost even further. I recently bought a video camera for less than half the retail price!! It took some good shopping skills on the computer but it was worth it.

But it is slow!

I heard some of my students tell me that the listening practice techniques were slow, and they were not gaining skills fast enough to satisfy them. This was after one month of practice. I asked them if the old ways of studying were faster. They told me yes. Then I asked if the old ways gave them real listening and speaking skills with irregular verbs. They hesitantly answered, 'no'.

After three months, my students were telling me how much they had improved. They were smiling, and happy. They told me that listening practice was much faster than just study by reading and writing.

Summary

One: irregular verbs are verbs that change form without a pattern when used in different tenses. 

Two: There are many in irregular verbs English, but not too many. They can be learned within a year without too much trouble.

Three: The traditional way of study with flashcards, and writing is slow and can be improved by: 

Four: The New Way to study by practicing listening skills which speeds up learning irregular verbs using: 

Five: Technology like computers and mp3 players (or cell phones, etc) 

Six: Study can be even faster with spaced repetition like some computer based flashcard systems 

Seven: It may cost more than old fashioned flashcards, but it is much much more effective: you really speak better! 

Eight: It may seem slow until you get used to it, but then it is much much faster than just reading and writing.

George playing poker with the boys.

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George is pretty happy tonight.  He was secretly betting on his friend Al to come down with a cold and not come to the weekly poker game.  When Al comes to the games he almost always picks on George. Then George gets angry and emotional and makes bad decisions, so he loses the poker games.  Al almost always goes to the games because he does not like to stay in.  Tonight, Al did come down with a cold, and stayed in to get better fast.  George got dressed up because he expects to win this evening's poker games.