If you’re an auditory learner like me, recite or sing them over and over. Practice them whenever you can, with a friend, or a game, or flash cards. The good news is that there is only one form of each verb in the simple past (except for the verb ‘be,’ below), as well as a past participle form that is often the same as the simple past form. If you can memorize five verbs a day, you can learn the most common irregular verbs in a week and all the commonly used verbs in less than three weeks. Since you probably already know many of them, much of that time would be for review. Past Tense Rules for Be: The simple past forms of 'be' are 'was' and 'were.'