Master the Past and You'll Master English Grammar

From a young age I was always taught to tackle the most difficult task first because after that everything else will seem easy.  I've carried this piece of advice with me throughout life, and I'm now encouraging my students to do the same when they learn English.  Israeli students have a difficult time with all of the different tenses in English, especially with the past tense.  The past tense is so challenging because of all of the irregular verbs in the simple past (V2) and past participle forms (V3), and the fact that these irregulars follow no concrete patterns or rules.  Bottom line if you're a new English learner, you just have to memorize all of the irregular verbs in the past, and until you do that you'll often make mistakes when using the simple past and past perfect tenses.

Before you panic, think about it like this: If you memorize five to ten irregular verbs per day you'll have this task done in two to three weeks.  Not so scary right? I recommend flashcards, and once you know the forms make sure that use the irregular forms in a few different sentences.  Write down these sentences and say them out loud to practice, and soon the you'll have all of the irregular verbs in the past memorized.  It's not fun, and there's no way around it, but I promise that once you master the past tense, the present and future will seem easy.  Master the past and begin your path to conquering English grammar.  Good luck!

Here's a list to get you started. If you don't like the colors you can Google "List of irregular verbs in the past tense" and you will find plenty.  If you want to print out the list just add "pdf" to your search.