How do I learn irregular verbs?

There are several successful tricks to make your brain remember something. These mental tricks can be very easily applied to learning just about anything, not just irregular verbs. Here are just a few:

Engage multiple sense while you study.

What does that mean in practice:

Read and try to memorize the English irregular verbs.
Next, try and write them down off the top of your head.
Find an audio track where the verbs are used and listen to how they’re used by native speakers.
And last but not least – speak! Use the irregular verbs in sentences and say them out loud.

Slowly but surely

You can’t possibly learn everything at once. Choose one verb at a time and repeat it for yourself all day. Next morning, start with the revision of the irregular verbs you already know, and add one new to the list.

Create a schedule and be consistent. Select three to four days a week and schedule a specific time to study. This won’t take more than 15 minutes, so you can easily get down to learning the verbs five times a week.

However, be consistent and make sure you study regularly.

Having said that, don’t overstretch yourself trying to study all the time. Your brain needs a rest too, so be sure to have a break. Twice a day, five times a week will do.

Use your imagination

Create a story or a mental picture for each of the verbs.

Take the irregular verb dig[dig], for example. Picture this: you’re digging up in a mine when you suddenly find a giant diamond. As it hits the diamond, your pickaxe makes a loud clunking noise sounding like ‘dig’. The pickaxe will break into a thousand pieces but you’ve found a real gem.

The more interesting, and silly the story is, the more your brain is likely to remember the verb.

In a similar vein, the past form and past participle of this irregular verb are dug. Let’s assume it’s been some time since you found the diamond (it’s the past now) but you can still hear the pickaxe clunking in your ears. It’s not as sharp as before, so now it sounds like [dag].