Crazy English

This poem jokes with the idea that the past form of English verbs does not always follow a logic... Look at the verbs in bold; their past form is wrong. Can you correct them? Check the answers (and find more activities) here.


The verbs in English are a fright.
How can we learn to read and write?
Today we speak, but first we spoke;
Some faucets leak, but never loke.
Today we write, but first we wrote;
We bite our tongues, but never bote.

Each day I teach, for years I taught;
And preachers preach, but never praught.
This tale I tell, this tale I told;
I smell the flowers, but never smold.
If knights still slay as once they slew,
Then do we play as once we plew?
If I still do as once I did,
Then do cows moo as once they mid?

I love to win, and games I won;
I seldom sin, and never son.
I hate to lose, and games I lost;
I didn't choose, and never chost.
I love to sing, and songs I sang;
I fling the ball, but never flang.
I strike the ball, that ball I struck;
This poem I like, but never luck.

I take a break, a break I took;
I bake a cake, but never book.
I eat that cake, that cake I ate.
I beat an egg, but never bate.
I often swim, as once I swam;
I skim some milk, but never skam.
I fly a kite that once I flew;
I tie a knot, but never tew.

I see the truth, the truth I saw;
I flee from falsehhod, never flaw.
I stand for truth, as once I stood;
I land a fish, but never lood.
About these verbs I sit and think.
These verbs don't fit. They seem to wink
At me, who sat for years and thought
Of verbs that never fat or wought.

Richard Lederer