TPR for Irregular Verbs
Firstly, explain to students that there are four types of irregular verb:
AAA : those which are said the same in infinitive, past simple and past participle, e.g. put, hurt
ABB : those in which the past simple and past participle are said the same, e.g. sit, find, read
ABA : those in which the infinitive and past participle are said the same, e.g. come, run
ABC : those in which all three parts are said differently, e.g. swim, forget
You may also like to reinforce the different forms with a TPR activity, adapted here from the version proposed by Mario Rinvolucri at the ACEIA conference in Sevilla, 2006.
In this Spanish version, A = abdomen, B = brazos and C = cabeza
With AAA verbs, students would touch their abdomen three times whilst saying the verb forms
(put, put, put = abdomen, abdomen, abdomen)
With ABB verbs, students would touch their abdomen once then brazos twice
(find, found, found = abdomen, brazos, brazos)
With ABA verbs, they would touch their abdomen, then brazos, then abdomen again
(come, came, come = abdomen, brazos, abdomen)
With ABC verbs, they would touch their abdomen, then brazos, then cabeza
(swim, swam, swum = abdomen, brazos, cabeza)