Going, going, gone: irregular verbs

Our neighbor and I were having a conversation about trick-or-treating. She said, “We had went around the neighbourhood, but not many houses were passing out candy”. She immediately recognized her mistake and corrected herself in her next statement. “I wish we had gone to the school party, instead”.

Our neighbor had fallen into the trap of irregular verbs. An irregular verb is a verb that doesn’t form its past tense or past participle by adding the usual -ed ending. Go doesn’t have a cute conjugation like the irregular verbs drink, drank, drunk or sing, sang, sung. Instead, go changes in each form. I have no tip — except to memorise go, went, gone.

Wendy Wood
Proofreader