Irregular Verbs by Rhyming Groups
A Comprehensive Guide with IPA, Myanmar Translation & Extended Exercises
Mastering irregular verbs is a common challenge for English learners. A powerful technique to make this process easier is to study them in rhyming groups. This page organizes over 100 verbs by their sound patterns to help you remember them more easily. Start with the video below, then dive into the 16 practice groups!
🟩 Group 1: The Unchanging Verbs (AAA)
| Verb | Past | Participle | Myanmar |
|---|---|---|---|
| bet /bɛt/ | bet /bɛt/ | bet /bɛt/ | လောင်းသည် |
| cut /kʌt/ | cut /kʌt/ | cut /kʌt/ | ဖြတ်သည် |
| put /pʊt/ | put /pʊt/ | put /pʊt/ | ထားသည် |
| hit /hɪt/ | hit /hɪt/ | hit /hɪt/ | ထိုးသည် |
| shut /ʃʌt/ | shut /ʃʌt/ | shut /ʃʌt/ | ပိတ်သည် |
| set /sɛt/ | set /sɛt/ | set /sɛt/ | သတ်မှတ်သည် |
| let /lɛt/ | let /lɛt/ | let /lɛt/ | ခွင့်ပြုသည် |
| cost /kɒst/ | cost /kɒst/ | cost /kɒst/ | ကုန်ကျသည် |
| hurt /hɜːt/ | hurt /hɜːt/ | hurt /hɜːt/ | ထိခိုက်သည် |
| spread /sprɛd/ | spread /sprɛd/ | spread /sprɛd/ | ဖြန့်သည် |
| burst /bɜːst/ | burst /bɜːst/ | burst /bɜːst/ | ပေါက်ကွဲသည် |
| cast /kɑːst/ | cast /kɑːst/ | cast /kɑːst/ | ပစ်သည် |
| quit /kwɪt/ | quit /kwɪt/ | quit /kwɪt/ | စွန့်လွှတ်သည် |
| split /splɪt/ | split /splɪt/ | split /splɪt/ | ခွဲသည် |
Exercise 1A – Fill in the blanks:
1. Yesterday, the balloon loudly.
2. He his job last week.
3. The movie ticket ten dollars.
4. Please me know your decision.
5. She the table for dinner.
Exercise 1B – Complete the table:
| Base | Past | Participle |
|---|---|---|
| hit | ||
| put | ||
| shut | ||
| spread |
🟨 Group 2: -ought / -aught (ABB)
| Verb | Past | Participle | Myanmar |
|---|---|---|---|
| bring/brɪŋ/ | brought/brɔːt/ | brought/brɔːt/ | ယူလာသည် |
| buy/baɪ/ | bought/bɔːt/ | bought/bɔːt/ | ဝယ်သည် |
| fight/faɪt/ | fought/fɔːt/ | fought/fɔːt/ | တိုက်ခိုက်သည် |
| think/θɪŋk/ | thought/θɔːt/ | thought/θɔːt/ | စဉ်းစားသည် |
| seek/siːk/ | sought/sɔːt/ | sought/sɔːt/ | ရှာသည် |
| teach/tiːtʃ/ | taught/tɔːt/ | taught/tɔːt/ | သင်ပေးသည် |
| catch/kætʃ/ | caught/kɔːt/ | caught/kɔːt/ | ဖမ်းသည် |
Exercise 2A – Fill in the blanks:
1. The police officer the thief.
2. I about you yesterday.
3. She a cake to the party.
4. The soldiers bravely.
5. He has English for ten years.
Exercise 2B – Complete the table:
| Base | Past | Participle |
|---|---|---|
| buy | ||
| seek | ||
| think |
🟧 Group 3: -ept / -elt / -eft (ABB)
| Verb | Past | Participle | Myanmar |
|---|---|---|---|
| sleep/sliːp/ | slept/slɛpt/ | slept/slɛpt/ | အိပ်သည် |
| keep/kiːp/ | kept/kɛpt/ | kept/kɛpt/ | သိမ်းထားသည် |
| weep/wiːp/ | wept/wɛpt/ | wept/wɛpt/ | ငိုသည် |
| creep/kriːp/ | crept/krɛpt/ | crept/krɛpt/ | တွားသွားသည် |
| feel/fiːl/ | felt/fɛlt/ | felt/fɛlt/ | ခံစားသည် |
| kneel/niːl/ | knelt/nɛlt/ | knelt/nɛlt/ | ဒူးထောက်သည် |
| leave/liːv/ | left/lɛft/ | left/lɛft/ | ထွက်သွားသည် |
| deal/diːl/ | dealt/dɛlt/ | dealt/dɛlt/ | ဆက်ဆံသည် |
| mean/miːn/ | meant/mɛnt/ | meant/mɛnt/ | ဆိုလိုသည် |
| dream/driːm/ | dreamt/drɛmt/ | dreamt/drɛmt/ | အိပ်မက်မက်သည် |
Exercise 3A – Complete the table:
| Base | Past | Participle |
|---|---|---|
| leave | ||
| feel | ||
| keep | ||
| sleep | ||
| mean |
Exercise 3B – Fill in the blanks:
1. I of you last night.
2. He down to pray.
3. The child when he lost his toy.
🟪 Group 4: i-a-u Pattern (ABC)
| Verb | Past | Participle | Myanmar |
|---|---|---|---|
| sing/sɪŋ/ | sang/sæŋ/ | sung/sʌŋ/ | သီချင်းဆိုသည် |
| drink/drɪŋk/ | drank/dræŋk/ | drunk/drʌŋk/ | သောက်သည် |
| ring/rɪŋ/ | rang/ræŋ/ | rung/rʌŋ/ | မြည်သည် |
| begin/bɪˈɡɪn/ | began/bɪˈɡæn/ | begun/bɪˈɡʌn/ | စတင်သည် |
| swim/swɪm/ | swam/swæm/ | swum/swʌm/ | ရေကူးသည် |
| sink/sɪŋk/ | sank/sæŋk/ | sunk/sʌŋk/ | နစ်မြုပ်သည် |
| shrink/ʃrɪŋk/ | shrank/ʃræŋk/ | shrunk/ʃrʌŋk/ | ကျုံ့သွားသည် |
| spring/sprɪŋ/ | sprang/spræŋ/ | sprung/sprʌŋ/ | ခုန်သည် |
Exercise 4A – Fill in the blanks:
1. The movie has already .
2. The ship in the ocean.
3. My sweater after I washed it.
4. He in the river yesterday.
5. The alarm clock at 7 AM.
Exercise 4B – Complete the table:
| Base | Past | Participle |
|---|---|---|
| sing | ||
| drink | ||
| begin |
🟦 Group 5: -ew / -own Pattern (ABC)
| Verb | Past | Participle | Myanmar |
|---|---|---|---|
| blow/bləʊ/ | blew/bluː/ | blown/bləʊn/ | တိုက်သည် |
| grow/ɡrəʊ/ | grew/ɡruː/ | grown/ɡrəʊn/ | ကြီးထွားသည် |
| know/nəʊ/ | knew/nuː/ | known/nəʊn/ | သိသည် |
| throw/θrəʊ/ | threw/θruː/ | thrown/θrəʊn/ | ပစ်သည် |
| fly/flaɪ/ | flew/fluː/ | flown/fləʊn/ | ပျံသန်းသည် |
| draw/drɔː/ | drew/druː/ | drawn/drɔːn/ | ဆွဲသည် |
Exercise 5A – Complete the table:
| Base | Past | Participle |
|---|---|---|
| know | ||
| fly | ||
| draw | ||
| blow |
Exercise 5B – Fill in the blanks:
1. The wind strongly last night.
2. I have him for many years.
3. The child a beautiful picture.
🟫 Group 6: -oke / -oken Family (ABC)
| Verb | Past | Participle | Myanmar |
|---|---|---|---|
| break/breɪk/ | broke/brəʊk/ | broken/ˈbrəʊkən/ | ကျိုးသည် |
| speak/spiːk/ | spoke/spəʊk/ | spoken/ˈspəʊkən/ | ပြောသည် |
| wake/weɪk/ | woke/wəʊk/ | woken/ˈwəʊkən/ | နိုးသည် |
| choose/tʃuːz/ | chose/tʃəʊz/ | chosen/ˈtʃəʊzən/ | ရွေးသည် |
| freeze/friːz/ | froze/frəʊz/ | frozen/ˈfrəʊzən/ | ခဲသည် |
| steal/stiːl/ | stole/stəʊl/ | stolen/ˈstəʊlən/ | ခိုးသည် |
Exercise 6A – Fill in the blanks:
1. The thief my wallet.
2. I have the blue shirt.
3. The water in the lake overnight.
4. He to the manager this morning.
Exercise 6B – Complete the table:
| Base | Past | Participle |
|---|---|---|
| break | ||
| wake | ||
| speak |
🟥 Group 7: -ide / -ote / -itten Pattern (ABC)
| Verb | Past | Participle | Myanmar |
|---|---|---|---|
| write/raɪt/ | wrote/rəʊt/ | written/ˈrɪtən/ | ရေးသည် |
| ride/raɪd/ | rode/rəʊd/ | ridden/ˈrɪdən/ | စီးသည် |
| drive/draɪv/ | drove/drəʊv/ | driven/ˈdrɪvən/ | မောင်းနှင်သည် |
| hide/haɪd/ | hid/hɪd/ | hidden/ˈhɪdən/ | ပုန်းသည် |
| bite/baɪt/ | bit/bɪt/ | bitten/ˈbɪtən/ | ကိုက်သည် |
| slide/slaɪd/ | slid/slɪd/ | slid/slidden/slɪd/ | လျှောသည် |
| rise/raɪz/ | rose/rəʊz/ | risen/ˈrɪzən/ | ထသည် |
Exercise 7A – Fill in the blanks:
1. The sun at 6 AM.
2. A dog him on the leg.
3. She has three books.
4. The children behind the tree.
Exercise 7B – Complete the table:
| Base | Past | Participle |
|---|---|---|
| ride | ||
| drive | ||
| hide |
Teal Group 8: -end / -ent (ABB)
| Verb | Past | Participle | Myanmar |
|---|---|---|---|
| send/send/ | sent/sɛnt/ | sent/sɛnt/ | ပေးပို့သည် |
| spend/spend/ | spent/spɛnt/ | spent/spɛnt/ | သုံးစွဲသည် |
| lend/lend/ | lent/lɛnt/ | lent/lɛnt/ | ချေးပေးသည် |
| bend/bend/ | bent/bɛnt/ | bent/bɛnt/ | ကွေးသည် |
| rend/rend/ | rent/rɛnt/ | rent/rɛnt/ | ဆွဲဖြဲသည် |
Exercise 8A – Fill in the blanks:
1. He the metal bar.
2. I have all my money.
3. She me her car for the weekend.
4. An email was to all employees.
Exercise 8B – Complete the table:
| Base | Past | Participle |
|---|---|---|
| spend | ||
| send | ||
| lend |
⬛️ Group 9: -ell / -old & -old / -eld (ABB)
| Verb | Past | Participle | Myanmar |
|---|---|---|---|
| sell/sel/ | sold/səʊld/ | sold/səʊld/ | ရောင်းသည် |
| tell/tel/ | told/təʊld/ | told/təʊld/ | ပြောသည် |
| hold/həʊld/ | held/hɛld/ | held/hɛld/ | ကိုင်သည် |
| behold/bɪˈhəʊld/ | beheld/bɪˈhɛld/ | beheld/bɪˈhɛld/ | ရှုမြင်သည် |
Exercise 9A – Complete the table:
| Base | Past | Participle |
|---|---|---|
| tell | ||
| hold | ||
| sell |
Exercise 9B – Fill in the blanks:
1. He has his car.
2. She her baby tightly.
3. They me a secret.
⚪️ Group 10: -ay / -aid (ABB)
| Verb | Past | Participle | Myanmar |
|---|---|---|---|
| say/seɪ/ | said/sɛd/ | said/sɛd/ | ပြောသည် |
| pay/peɪ/ | paid/peɪd/ | paid/peɪd/ | ငွေပေးသည် |
| lay/leɪ/ | laid/leɪd/ | laid/leɪd/ | ထားသည် |
Exercise 10A – Fill in the blanks:
1. He the bill for dinner.
2. She the baby in the crib.
3. What have you to him?
Exercise 10B – Complete the table:
| Base | Past | Participle |
|---|---|---|
| say | ||
| pay | ||
| lay |
🟢 Group 11: -eed / -ed (ABB)
| Verb | Past | Participle | Myanmar |
|---|---|---|---|
| bleed/bliːd/ | bled/blɛd/ | bled/blɛd/ | သွေးထွက်သည် |
| feed/fiːd/ | fed/fɛd/ | fed/fɛd/ | ကျွေးသည် |
| breed/briːd/ | bred/brɛd/ | bred/brɛd/ | မွေးမြူသည် |
| lead/liːd/ | led/lɛd/ | led/lɛd/ | ဦးဆောင်သည် |
| read/riːd/ | read/rɛd/ | read/rɛd/ | ဖတ်သည် |
| speed/spiːd/ | sped/spɛd/ | sped/spɛd/ | အရှိန်မြှင့်သည် |
| meet/miːt/ | met/mɛt/ | met/mɛt/ | တွေ့ဆုံသည် |
Exercise 11A – Fill in the blanks:
1. His finger after the cut.
2. She the team to victory.
3. I have already that book.
4. I my friend at the cafe.
Exercise 11B – Complete the table:
| Base | Past | Participle |
|---|---|---|
| feed | ||
| meet | ||
| lead |
🟡 Group 12: -ing / -ung (ABB)
| Verb | Past | Participle | Myanmar |
|---|---|---|---|
| cling/klɪŋ/ | clung/klʌŋ/ | clung/klʌŋ/ | တွယ်ကပ်သည် |
| fling/flɪŋ/ | flung/flʌŋ/ | flung/flʌŋ/ | ပစ်လွှတ်သည် |
| sling/slɪŋ/ | slung/slʌŋ/ | slung/slʌŋ/ | လောက်လွှဲဖြင့်ပစ်သည် |
| swing/swɪŋ/ | swung/swʌŋ/ | swung/swʌŋ/ | လွှဲသည် |
| hang/hæŋ/ | hung/hʌŋ/ | hung/hʌŋ/ | ချိတ်ဆွဲသည် |
| dig/dɪɡ/ | dug/dʌɡ/ | dug/dʌɡ/ | တူးသည် |
| stick/stɪk/ | stuck/stʌk/ | stuck/stʌk/ | ကပ်သည် |
| spin/spɪn/ | spun/spʌn/ | spun/spʌn/ | လည်သည် |
Exercise 12A – Complete the table:
| Base | Past | Participle |
|---|---|---|
| hang | ||
| dig | ||
| stick | ||
| swing |
Exercise 12B – Fill in the blanks:
1. The wet clothes to her body.
2. I am in a traffic jam.
3. He the book onto the table in anger.
🟠 Group 13: -ind / -ound (ABB)
| Verb | Past | Participle | Myanmar |
|---|---|---|---|
| find/faɪnd/ | found/faʊnd/ | found/faʊnd/ | ရှာတွေ့သည် |
| bind/baɪnd/ | bound/baʊnd/ | bound/baʊnd/ | ချည်နှောင်သည် |
| grind/ɡraɪnd/ | ground/ɡraʊnd/ | ground/ɡraʊnd/ | ကြိတ်သည် |
| wind/waɪnd/ | wound/waʊnd/ | wound/waʊnd/ | လိမ်သည် |
Exercise 13A – Fill in the blanks:
1. I finally my keys.
2. He the bandage around his arm.
3. They the coffee beans this morning.
Exercise 13B – Complete the table:
| Base | Past | Participle |
|---|---|---|
| find | ||
| bind | ||
| grind |
🟣 Group 14: -ear / -ore / -orn (ABC)
| Verb | Past | Participle | Myanmar |
|---|---|---|---|
| wear/weər/ | wore/wɔːr/ | worn/wɔːrn/ | ဝတ်သည် |
| tear/teər/ | tore/tɔːr/ | torn/tɔːrn/ | ဆုတ်ဖြဲသည် |
| swear/sweər/ | swore/swɔːr/ | sworn/swɔːrn/ | ကျိန်ဆိုသည် |
| bear/beər/ | bore/bɔːr/ | born/borne/bɔːrn/ | ခံသည် / မွေးသည် |
Exercise 14A – Complete the table:
| Base | Past | Participle |
|---|---|---|
| wear | ||
| tear | ||
| swear |
Exercise 14B – Fill in the blanks:
1. He the letter into pieces.
2. She has that dress before.
3. He to tell the truth.
🔵 Group 15: The Boomerang Verbs (ABA)
These verbs return to their base form in the past participle.
| Verb | Past | Participle | Myanmar |
|---|---|---|---|
| come/kʌm/ | came/keɪm/ | come/kʌm/ | လာသည် |
| become/bɪˈkʌm/ | became/bɪˈkeɪm/ | become/bɪˈkʌm/ | ဖြစ်လာသည် |
| overcome/ˌəʊvərˈkʌm/ | overcame/ˌəʊvərˈkeɪm/ | overcome/ˌəʊvərˈkʌm/ | ကျော်လွှားသည် |
| run/rʌn/ | ran/ræn/ | run/rʌn/ | ပြေးသည် |
Exercise 15A – Fill in the blanks:
1. She a marathon last year.
2. He has a doctor.
3. My friends to my house yesterday.
4. They many difficulties.
Exercise 15B – Complete the table:
| Base | Past | Participle |
|---|---|---|
| run | ||
| come | ||
| become |
🔴 Group 16: Unique Patterns
These common verbs have unique patterns that don't fit into other groups.
| Verb | Past | Participle | Myanmar |
|---|---|---|---|
| be/biː/ | was/were/wɒz, wɜːr/ | been/biːn/ | ဖြစ်သည် |
| go/ɡəʊ/ | went/wɛnt/ | gone/ɡɒn/ | သွားသည် |
| do/duː/ | did/dɪd/ | done/dʌn/ | လုပ်သည် |
| see/siː/ | saw/sɔː/ | seen/siːn/ | မြင်သည် |
| give/ɡɪv/ | gave/ɡeɪv/ | given/ˈɡɪvən/ | ပေးသည် |
| eat/iːt/ | ate/eɪt/ | eaten/ˈiːtən/ | စားသည် |
| take/teɪk/ | took/tʊk/ | taken/ˈteɪkən/ | ယူသည် |
| shake/ʃeɪk/ | shook/ʃʊk/ | shaken/ˈʃeɪkən/ | လှုပ်သည် |
| stand/stænd/ | stood/stʊd/ | stood/stʊd/ | ရပ်သည် |
| make/meɪk/ | made/meɪd/ | made/meɪd/ | ပြုလုပ်သည် |
| fall/fɔːl/ | fell/fɛl/ | fallen/ˈfɔːlən/ | ကျသည် |
Exercise 16A – Complete the table:
| Base | Past | Participle |
|---|---|---|
| go | ||
| see | ||
| take | ||
| make | ||
| eat |
Exercise 16B – Fill in the blanks:
1. They have to the beach.
2. I a good film last night.
3. She him a nice present.
4. The old man down the stairs.
5. He has a great job.
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