Common Irregular Verbs (go, do, have, see…) – English Grammar Exercises for A1
Two friends (Alex and Sam) are having a drink and asking each other about what they ate and drank yesterday.
Choose the best answer (A, B, or C) to complete each sentence. Pay close attention to how common irregular verbs (eat, drink, have) are conjugated in the Past Simple tense.
1 “Yesterday morning, I _____ a bowl of cereal,” said Anna.
(a) ate
(b) eated
(c) eat
2 “I was very thirsty, so I _____ a large glass of milk.”
(a) drinked
(b) drank
(c) drinking
3 “We _____ some delicious eggs and toast for breakfast.”
(a) has
(b) haved
(c) had
4 “My brother _____ a chocolate cake for dessert last night.”
(a) made
(b) maked
(c) make
5 “I _____ some fresh apples from the supermarket yesterday.”
(a) buyed
(b) bought
(c) buys
6 “What _____ for lunch yesterday?” Alex asked.
(a) did you had
(b) had you
(c) did you have
7 “I wasn’t very thirsty, so I _____ any juice.”
(a) didn’t drink
(b) didn’t drank
(c) no drink
8 “_____ you eat the leftover pizza in the fridge?”
(a) Were
(b) Did
(c) Was
9 “She didn’t _____ the meat because she doesn’t like pork.”
(a) ate
(b) eated
(c) eat
10 “Where did you _____ that amazing hamburger?”
(a) bought
(b) buy
(c) buyed
11 “I _____ time to cook, so I ordered food online.”
(a) didn’t had
(b) haven’t
(c) didn’t have
12 “_____ your friends drink all the coffee?”
(a) Did
(b) Do
(c) Are
13 “Who _____ this wonderful chicken soup?”
(a) did make
(b) made
(c) maked
14 “We didn’t _____ to a restaurant; we stayed home.”
(a) went
(b) goed
(c) go
15 “I was extremely hungry, so I _____ two bowls of rice.”
(a) ate
(b) eat
(c) eated
16 “They didn’t like the spicy food, so they _____ it.”
(a) didn’t ate
(b) didn’t eat
(c) wasn’t eat
17 “She asked for water, but the waiter _____ her a cola.”
(a) gived
(b) give
(c) gave
18 “I _____ a big dinner, so I feel very full now.”
(a) had
(b) have
(c) haved
19 “How much water _____ yesterday?”
(a) you drank
(b) did you drink
(c) did you drank
20 “We wanted sushi, so we _____ to a Japanese restaurant.”
(a) went
(b) goed
(c) go
ANSWER KEY & EXPLANATIONS
1 (a) ate
- Explanation: “Ate” is the correct irregular past form of “eat”. Option (b) is a common mistake (incorrectly adding “-ed”). Option (c) is the present tense, which does not fit the time marker “Yesterday”.
2 (b) drank
- Explanation: The past tense of “drink” is “drank”. Option (a) is a common mistake (“drinked”). Option (c) is a fundamental grammar error because it lacks the “to be” verb (was/were) needed for continuous forms.
3 (c) had
- Explanation: “Had” is the past tense of “have”. Option (b) is a common mistake of treating it as a regular verb (“haved”). Option (a) is the present tense for third-person singular subjects.
4 (a) made
- Explanation: The past tense of “make” is “made”. Option (b) is a common mistake (“maked”). Option (c) is the base form/present tense.
5 (b) bought
- Explanation: The past tense of “buy” is “bought”. Option (a) is a common mistake (“buyed”). Option (c) is the present tense.
6 (c) did you have
- Explanation: Past Simple questions require the auxiliary verb “did” + the base verb (“have”). Option (a) is a very common double-past mistake (“did” + “had”). Option (b) uses an incorrect question structure.
7 (a) didn’t drink
- Explanation: Negative sentences use “didn’t” + the base verb. Option (b) is a double-past mistake (“didn’t” + “drank”). Option (c) is grammatically incorrect.
8 (b) Did
- Explanation: Yes/No questions with main verbs (like “eat”) in the past tense require the auxiliary “Did”. Options (a) and (c) incorrectly use the “to be” verb (Was/Were) with a main verb.
9 (c) eat
- Explanation: After “didn’t”, the main verb must always be in its base form (“eat”). Option (a) is a double-past mistake. Option (b) is an invalid verb form.
10 (b) buy
- Explanation: In a question that already uses “did”, the main verb stays in its base form. Option (a) is a double-past mistake (“did” + “bought”). Option (c) is an invalid verb form.
11 (c) didn’t have
- Explanation: The negative past form of the main verb “have” is “didn’t have”. Option (a) is a double-past mistake (“didn’t had”). Option (b) is grammatically incorrect for the Past Simple tense here (usually belongs to the Present Perfect).
12 (a) Did
- Explanation: The correct auxiliary for Past Simple questions is “Did”. Option (b) is present tense. Option (c) incorrectly mixes a “to be” verb (“Are”) with a main verb.
13 (b) made
- Explanation: Subject questions (starting with “Who”) do not use the auxiliary “did”; the verb is directly conjugated in the past tense. Option (a) is a common mistake of forcing “did” into a subject question. Option (c) is an invalid word.
14 (c) go
- Explanation: After “didn’t”, the verb must revert to the base form (“go”). Option (a) is a double-past mistake (“didn’t went”). Option (b) is an invalid word.
15 (a) ate
- Explanation: Affirmative sentences require the past form “ate”. Option (b) is the present tense. Option (c) is an invalid form with “-ed”.
16 (b) didn’t eat
- Explanation: The correct negative structure is “didn’t” + base form. Option (a) is a double-past mistake (“didn’t ate”). Option (c) incorrectly uses the “to be” verb (“wasn’t”) alongside a main verb.
17 (c) gave
- Explanation: The past tense of “give” is “gave”. Option (a) is an invalid form with “-ed”. Option (b) is the present tense.
18 (a) had
- Explanation: “Had a dinner” means “ate a dinner”. The past tense is “had”. Option (b) is the present tense, which contradicts the result clause (“so I feel very full now”). Option (c) is an invalid word.
19 (b) did you drink
- Explanation: The structure for a Wh-question in the past is: Wh-word + did + Subject + Base Verb. Option (c) is a double-past mistake. Option (a) is missing the auxiliary “did”.
20 (a) went
- Explanation: The past tense of “go” is “went”. Option (b) is an invalid word with “-ed”. Option (c) is the present tense, which does not match the past verb “wanted” in the first clause.
GRAMMAR POINTS TO REMEMBER
1 Irregular Verbs (Food & Drink): Many common verbs related to eating and drinking do not follow the “-ed” rule. You must memorize their past forms:
- eat ➔ ate
- drink ➔ drank
- have ➔ had
- make ➔ made
- buy ➔ bought
2 The “Did” Rule (Auxiliary Verbs): In Negative sentences and Questions, once you use the auxiliary verb “did” or “didn’t”, the main verb MUST return to its Base Form (Infinitive).
- Common Mistake: I didn’t ate. ➔ Correct: I didn’t eat.
- Common Mistake: Did you had? ➔ Correct: Did you have?