The main irregular verbs in English are “to be”, “to have” and “to do”. They are very frequent, so it’s important to know them|
To be
I am
you are
he/she/it is
we are
you are
they are
I am Italian.
You are late.
To form the negative, add “not” after the verb. “Not” is often contracted to “n’t”:
I am not
you aren’t
he/she/it isn’t
we aren’t
you aren’t
they aren’t
She isn’t my sister.
They aren’t here.
To form a question, invert the verb and the subject:
Are you tired?
Is he at home?
Some uses of the verb “to be” which might seem strange to speakers of other languages are:
to be cold/hot
to be hungry
to be thirsty
to be right
to be sleepy
To have (got)
I have (got)
you have (got)
he/she/it has (got)
we have (got)
you have (got)
they have (got)
Often with this verb we use a contracted form, followed by “got”:
I’ve got
you’ve got
he/she/it’s got
we’ve got
you’ve got
they’ve got
He’s got a nice car.
We’ve got a new motorbike.
To make the negative, add “not” after “have”:
I have not got
you have not got
he/she/it has not got
we have not got
you have not got
they have not got
Again, the contracted form is very common: “haven’t got” e “hasn’t got”.
I haven’t got time today.
She hasn’t got many freinds.
Invert the verb and subject to form a question:
Have you got a garden?
Has he got children?
Some common expressions are:
to have a shower
to have brekfast/lunh/dinner
to have a party
to have a good time
to have a look at
to have a nice day
To do
The verb “to do” is used as a main verb, but also as an auxiliary in the negative and question forms of other verbs.
It’s conjugated like this:
I do
you do
he/she/it does
we do
you do
they do
We use “to do” as a main verb to talk about, for instance an activity or profession:
(+) I do homework in the evenings.
(-) John doesn’t do any sport.
(?) Do you do private English lessons?
We use “to do” as an auxiliary verb to form the question and negative forms of other verbs in the present and past simple tenses.
The verb is often contracted to “don’t/doesn’t”:
Do you play tennis?
She doesn’t work.
We don’t study in the evenings.