In this instructional podcast episode, Hadar Shemesh guides listeners through a systematic pronunciation practice of common English irregular verbs, organizing them by shared vowel or consonant sounds. The lesson begins with a brief personal introduction and a call to action for free resources. She then moves through five sound groups: the short‑e sound (as in “red”), the aw/ah sound (as in “daughter”), the stressed schwa/uh sound (as in “cup”), the nasal /n/ sound (as in “gotten”), and the long‑o/own sound (as in “go”). For each group, she lists the verbs, models the three forms (base, past simple, past participle) with repeated choral drills, offers brief articulatory tips (lip rounding, tongue position, nasal airflow), and reinforces learning with short example sentences. The episode concludes with a summary of the practice’s purpose, promotion of her on‑demand pronunciation masterclass, additional learning resources (Fluency MC rap song, extra drills), and a friendly sign‑off. The overall aim is to help non‑native speakers internalize the sound patterns of irregular verbs so they can pronounce them fluently and accurately.
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Do you sometimes struggle with the pronunciation of irregular verbs? If yes, then you are going to love this practice because today we are going to practice the pronunciation of common irregular verbs according to sounds. So we're going to take a group of irregular verbs that have the same sound, and we're going to practice them together so you can brand the pronunciation into your mouth and into your brain. And if anything, it's just going to be a fun pronunciation grammar practice. Pronoun grammar. Grammersion. However you want to call it. If you're new to my channel, then hi, my name is Hadar. I'm a non-native speaker of English and I love teaching pronunciation, fluency strategies, intonation, rhythm, stress, and mindset. If you want to check out all my free lessons and resources, go to hadarshemesh.com or follow me on social media. And of course, Subscribe to my channel if you're watching this on YouTube or listening to it on your favorite podcast platform. All right, let's get started. The first group of irregular verbs with the sound e, e as in red. The first one is say. Say, said, said. Just follow me. Say, Said, said. Read, read, read. Read, read, read. Next one. Lead, led, led. Lead, led, led. Next one. Feed, fed, fed. Feed, fed, fed. Just repeat after me. This is how you remember it. Meet, met, Met. Meet, met, met. Very good. Let's read a few sentences together. She said she read the report, but she led the meeting without notes. She said she read the report, but she led the meeting without notes. He fed the data into the system and met with the team right after. He fed the data into the system And met with the team right after. Good. That was a good practice of the eh sound. Now let's practice the aw as in daughter, or sometimes I teach it as the ah as in father for words like bought, thought, and fought. Ready? Buy, bought, bought. Aw, aw, aw. So you can round your lips for this or just drop it completely. Bought. More of an ah as in father. Buy, bought, bought. O-U-G-H, that's the spelling pattern. Buy, bought, bought. Think, thought, thought. Say it out loud with me. This is the only way to make it work. Just say it out loud. Catch, caught, caught. Teach, taught, taught. Bring, brought, brought. Very good. Aw, aw. Caught, caught. Taught, taught. Brought, brought. He brought the notes and bought everyone coffee before the talk. He brought the notes and bought everyone coffee before the talk. Good. The next sound we're going to practice with irregular verbs is the uh as in cup. Uh. It's called a stressed schwa. A schwa is a very neutral sound. Uh. The cup is a bit more open, uh, right? The tongue is flat, slightly arched, jaw drops a bit, uh, cup, cup. Come, came, come. Come, came, come. Run, ran, run. Run, ran, run. Become, became, become. Become, became, become. So here we see a different pattern. If before the, the examples were the infinitive was different and then past simple, past participle were the same, lead, led, led. Here the infinitive is different from the past simple. Come, came, and then going back to come with a cup sound. So again, become, became, become. Begin, began, begun. Here it's different. We have the I sound. Begin, began, begun. Cup, begun, begun. The past participle. Drink, drank, drunk. Drink, drank, drunk. Let's practice this. I have run this meeting so many times it feels automatic. I've run, run. I've run this meeting so many times, I feel it's automatic. I've run, run, run. I've run this meeting so many times, it feels automatic. She has become the kind of speaker people actually listen to. She has become, she has become, she has become, she has become the kind of speaker people actually listen to. Good. The next pattern is the tishwa n, the infamous n. I have an entire video on how to pronounce it, so check it out. I'm going to link to it in the description below. So, n, as in gotten, gotten. Let's do it together. Get, got, gotten. Get, got, gotten. Eat, ate, eaten, eaten. Release it through the nose, tongue goes up to block the air, air comes out through the nose, or you bring it up and you just hold it here. Eaten, eaten, eaten. Eat, ate, eaten. Write, wrote, written. Let's practice it in a few sentences. She had spoken to him before he had written a single word. Spoken as well, similar pattern, schwa N. She had spoken to him before he had written a single word. They had eaten and taken their seats by the time she got there. They had eaten and taken their seats by the time she got there. Eaten, Good. Let's practice one more pattern, which is the own, own, own at the end. Know, knew, known. Just follow me. Know, knew, known. Long O as in go. Grow, grew, grown. Grow, grew, grown. Throw, threw, thrown. Throw, threw, thrown. Blow, blew, blown. Blow, blew, blown. She's blown him out of the water. She has blown him out of the water. Look at how much she's grown. Look at how much she's grown. All right, good. This was a fun practice of irregular verbs according to pronunciation. So now this is designed to to help you organize the sounds in your head and just practice sounds out loud with me and sentences. If you want to go deeper into practicing pronunciation, definitely check out my free pronunciation masterclass at hadarshemesh.com/masterclass or click the link below. I will teach you about how to identify the sounds that prevent you from sounding clear and also how to use intonation, rhythm, stress to sound expressive and clear in English. It's a lot of fun. Check it out. It's on demand, so you can sign up and watch it right away. Thank you so much for joining my practice. I'm going to add some more resources for learning irregular verbs. I highly recommend Fluency MC song, rap song. I don't know if you know it, but you should definitely check it out if you want to practice irregular verbs with rhythm. And additional grammar/pronunciation drills that I have created. I'm going to link all of them in the description below. Have a beautiful, beautiful rest of the day. Thank you for watching, and I'll see you next week in the next video. Bye!
