Is there a trick for learning irregular verbs?

Grouping by pattern helps more than memorizing a list: sing/sang, ring/rang, swim/swam share a vowel change; catch/caught and teach/taught share another. Practice one family at a time, then mix them on a worksheet to check retention.

Why do the worksheets always include a time word like "yesterday"?

The time cue forces the past tense, so exactly one answer is correct. It also builds the real-life habit: when writing about the past, the verb has to change. Without the cue, several forms could be defensible and the practice gets mushy.

3rd grade irregular past tense verbs

3rd grade irregular past tense verbs worksheets

Irregular verbs form the past without -ed: teach/taught, catch/caught, fly/flew, swim/swam. Third graders expand their set beyond the everyday verbs and get faster at rejecting overregularized forms like "teached."

Free printable PDF worksheet, aligned to Common Core L.3.1.d.

Each print is a different sheet with its own answer key. You don't need to sign up.

The kind of sentences you'll fix

Write the past tense of the verb in parentheses in the blank.

The tired puppy (sleep) in the laundry basket all afternoon yesterday.
Fixed: The tired puppy slept in the laundry basket all afternoon yesterday.
Before sunrise on Saturday, Kenji (wake) to the smell of pancakes.
Carlos (draw) a comic strip about a robot dog last night.

Every print pulls a new set of sentences at this level, so a make-up test or a second sibling gets a different mix.

What's on a 3rd grade sheet

3rd grade sheets draw from 95 sentences, 8 to a page. All 60 of 2nd grade's sentences are here too, plus 35 more. 2nd grade sheets print 7 to a page.

A few of the sentences, as the answer key corrects them:

Last summer, we took a long train ride to the coast.
Tomas wrote his name in the wet sand this morning.
Last July, a pod of dolphins swam beside our boat.

Fix it. Write the past tense of the verb in parentheses in the blank. 8 sentences to fix per page.
Choose the word. Circle the letter of the correct past tense verb. The word in parentheses is the verb to change. 10 questions per page.

Every version prints on US Letter or A4, with its answer key on the last page.

How to teach this

Group verbs by their change pattern rather than alphabetically: sing/sang, swim/swam, ring/rang in one session; catch/caught, teach/taught in another. The patterns give students something to hold on to. Keep the time cue habit: the word "yesterday" at the front of a sentence is the signal to reach for the past form.

Watch for: Adding -ed to everything (goed, runned) is a smart guess that happens to be wrong for these verbs. It means the child has learned the regular rule; now they need the exceptions. Some past forms need a helper: 'she has written', not 'she has wrote'. Our answer keys use the plain past on these sheets.

Common questions about 3rd grade irregular past tense verbs

Is there a trick for learning irregular verbs?: Grouping by pattern helps more than memorizing a list: sing/sang, ring/rang, swim/swam share a vowel change; catch/caught and teach/taught share another. Practice one family at a time, then mix them on a worksheet to check retention.
Why do the worksheets always include a time word like "yesterday"?: The time cue forces the past tense, so exactly one answer is correct. It also builds the real-life habit: when writing about the past, the verb has to change. Without the cue, several forms could be defensible and the practice gets mushy.

Related worksheets

Ready to print one?

Need a fresh set of sentences? Download another copy.

Aligned to Common Core L.3.1.d. Reviewed by the One more sheet team. Content version 240, updated October 2026.

Spot a mistake on this sheet? Tell us. · About these worksheets