Gateway to Grammar: Verb Families pt.2 The “Ought” Family

Gateway to GrammarVerb Families
Written By Lana Williams

This week we are looking at the verb family “Ought”. Verb families are groups of English verbs that sound similar when you conjugate them (use them in different times and tenses). It’s really helpful to learn them together because we use a different part of our brains to remember sounds, and it’s excellent for long-term memory.

The “Ought” Verb Family

  • (infinitive/present simple) -> (past simple) -> (past participle/3rd form/present perfect)

  • Think -> Thought -> Thought

  • Teach -> Taught -> Taught

  • Bring -> Brought -> Brought

  • Buy -> Bought -> Bought

  • Catch -> Caught -> Caught

  • Fight -> Fought -> Fought

(Be careful - teach uses an ‘a’ in it’s 3rd form = “taught”)

Try Making a Song

I know this sounds a little crazy, but if you can create a tune or a song to learn your irregular verb families, this is the easiest way to remember them in the future. Words learned in songs can stay with us for the rest of our lives!

Lana Williams https://www.wrightenglish.com
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