Common Irregular Verbs (go, do, have, see…) – English Grammar Exercises for A1
You woke up feeling terrible this morning. You are writing an email to your teacher or sending a text message to a friend to cancel your class or your meeting today. You need to explain how you felt last night and what happened to your body.
Choose the best answer (A, B, or C) to complete your message. Pay close attention to the past tense of these irregular verbs related to health, sleep, and body sensations!
1 “Hi Sarah, I’m sorry, but I can’t meet you today. I _____ terrible last night.”
(a) feeled
(b) felt
(c) feel
2 “I think I _____ a bad cold from my coworker yesterday.”
(a) caught
(b) catched
(c) catch
3 “I _____ up at 3:00 AM with a terrible headache.”
(a) waked
(b) wake
(c) woke
4 “Because of my headache, I didn’t _____ well at all.”
(a) slept
(b) sleep
(c) sleeped
5 “Yesterday evening, I _____ a very high fever.”
(a) had
(b) haved
(c) have
6 “I _____ some medicine, but I still feel very weak today.”
(a) taked
(b) take
(c) took
7 “Did you _____ sick after eating at that new restaurant?” my friend asked.
(a) got
(b) get
(c) getted
8 “Yes, my stomach was upset, so I _____ to bed early.”
(a) went
(b) goed
(c) go
9 “My throat _____ a lot when I tried to swallow water.”
(a) hurted
(b) hurts
(c) hurt
10 “I think I _____ something bad for dinner.”
(a) ate
(b) eated
(c) eat
11 “I _____ a lot of hot lemon tea, but my throat is still dry.”
(a) drinked
(b) drank
(c) drink
12 “Did you _____ cold during the night?”
(a) felt
(b) feeled
(c) feel
13 “I was so tired, but I only _____ for about two hours.”
(a) sleeped
(b) slept
(c) sleep
14 “I didn’t _____ enough energy to get out of bed this morning.”
(a) had
(b) have
(c) haved
15 “Because I felt so bad, I _____ to the doctor’s clinic an hour ago.”
(a) go
(b) went
(c) goed
16 “The doctor _____ me to stay home and rest for two days.”
(a) telled
(b) tell
(c) told
17 “She _____ me a prescription for some antibiotics.”
(a) gave
(b) gived
(c) give
18 “Did the nurse _____ your temperature at the clinic?”
(a) took
(b) take
(c) taked
19 “I don’t know how I _____ this terrible flu, but I need to sleep now.”
(a) caught
(b) catched
(c) catch
20 “I _____ a little better after drinking the medicine, but I still can’t come to class.”
(a) felt
(b) feel
(c) feeled
ANSWER KEY & EXPLANATIONS
1 (b) felt
- Explanation: “Felt” is the irregular past tense of “feel”. Option (a) is a common mistake (“feeled”). Option (c) is the present tense.
2 (a) caught
- Explanation: “Caught” is the irregular past tense of “catch” (as in “catch a cold”). Option (b) is a common mistake (“catched”). Option (c) is the present tense.
3 (c) woke
- Explanation: “Woke” is the irregular past tense of “wake” (wake up). Option (a) is a common mistake adding “-ed”. Option (b) is the present tense.
4 (b) sleep
- Explanation: After the negative auxiliary “didn’t”, the main verb must return to its base form (“sleep”). Option (a) is a double-past mistake (“didn’t slept”). Option (c) is an invalid word.
5 (a) had
- Explanation: “Had” is the irregular past tense of “have” (used for having a fever/headache). Option (b) is a common mistake (“haved”). Option (c) is the present tense.
6 (c) took
- Explanation: “Took” is the irregular past tense of “take” (used with medicine). Option (a) is a common mistake (“taked”). Option (b) is the present tense.
7 (b) get
- Explanation: The question uses the auxiliary “Did”, so the main verb must be in its base form (“get” sick). Option (a) is a double-past mistake (“Did you got”). Option (c) is an invalid word.
8 (a) went
- Explanation: “Went” is the irregular past tense of “go” (went to bed). Option (b) is a common mistake (“goed”). Option (c) is the present tense.
9 (c) hurt
- Explanation: “Hurt” is a special irregular verb that stays exactly the same in the past tense! Option (a) is a very common mistake (“hurted”). Option (b) is the present tense (with ‘s’).
10 (a) ate
- Explanation: “Ate” is the irregular past tense of “eat”. Option (b) is a common mistake (“eated”). Option (c) is the present tense.
11 (b) drank
- Explanation: “Drank” is the irregular past tense of “drink”. Option (a) is a common mistake (“drinked”). Option (c) is the present tense.
12 (c) feel
- Explanation: The question starts with “Did”, so the main verb must be the base form “feel”. Option (a) is a double-past mistake. Option (b) is an invalid word.
13 (b) slept
- Explanation: “Slept” is the irregular past tense of “sleep”. Option (a) is a common mistake (“sleeped”). Option (c) is the present tense.
14 (b) have
- Explanation: After “didn’t”, use the base form “have”. Option (a) is a double-past mistake (“didn’t had”). Option (c) is an invalid word.
15 (b) went
- Explanation: “Went” is the irregular past tense of “go” (went to the doctor). Option (a) is the present tense. Option (c) is a common mistake.
16 (c) told
- Explanation: “Told” is the irregular past tense of “tell”. Option (a) is a common mistake (“telled”). Option (b) is the present tense.
17 (a) gave
- Explanation: “Gave” is the irregular past tense of “give”. Option (b) is a common mistake (“gived”). Option (c) is the present tense.
18 (b) take
- Explanation: The question uses “Did the nurse…”, so the main verb goes back to the base form “take” (take temperature). Option (a) is a double-past mistake. Option (c) is an invalid word.
19 (a) caught
- Explanation: “Caught” is the irregular past tense of “catch”. Option (b) is a common mistake (“catched”). Option (c) is the present tense.
20 (a) felt
- Explanation: “Felt” is the irregular past tense of “feel”. Option (c) is a common mistake. Option (b) is the present tense.
GRAMMAR POINTS TO REMEMBER
1 Health and Body Irregular Verbs: When you are explaining why you are sick, you will use many verbs related to your body, sleep, and actions. Do not add “-ed” to these words! You must memorize their past forms:
- feel → felt (I felt terrible.)
- sleep → slept (I slept poorly.)
- wake → woke (I woke up early.)
- catch → caught (I caught a cold.)
- take → took (I took medicine.)
- have → had (I had a fever.)
- hurt → hurt (It stays exactly the same!)
2 The “Did / Didn’t” Rule (The Base Form Rule): When you tell your teacher what symptoms you did not have, or when someone asks how you felt, you must use did or didn’t. Remember that the main verb then goes back to its normal dictionary form (Base Form).
- Question: Did you feel sick? (Not: Did you felt)
- Negative: I didn’t sleep well. (Not: I didn’t slept)