Virtuous English AcademyA2 Core English Verbs
- #A2
- #Grammar
- #Rules
- #Examples
This lesson gathers the core verbs every A2 learner needs, with clear meanings and examples. Knowing these high-frequency verbs well makes every other grammar point easier to use.
A small number of verbs do an enormous share of the work in English. Be, have, do, get, go, make, take, come, give and put appear far more often than any others, and each one carries several distinct meanings plus a family of phrasal verbs built on top of it. Learning them thoroughly is worth more than learning fifty rare verbs.
The difficulty with these verbs is not their form — most are irregular but short — it is their range. Get alone means obtain, become, arrive, understand and receive depending on context. Take means carry, require, accept and study. Mastering a core verb means learning its main senses, not just its translation.
These verbs also generate the most common phrasal verbs in the language: get up, take off, put on, come back, give up, make up. Because phrasal verbs are built from ordinary words but carry unpredictable meanings, they are among the hardest things for learners — and among the most useful.
How to form A2 Core Verbs
| Verb | Past | Participle | Common meanings |
|---|---|---|---|
| be | was / were | been | exist, identity, state |
| have | had | had | possess, experience, auxiliary |
| do | did | done | perform, auxiliary |
| get | got | got / gotten | obtain, become, arrive, understand |
| go | went | gone | move, travel, become |
| make | made | made | create, cause, force |
| take | took | taken | carry, require, accept |
| come | came | come | arrive, move towards |
| give | gave | given | hand over, provide |
| put | put | put | place, position |
A2 Core Verbs: the key rules
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A small set of verbs — get, take, make, do, have, go — powers a huge share of everyday English.
get up, take a break, make a decision, do the shopping
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Make = create or produce; do = perform an activity or duty.
make dinner, make a mistake — do homework, do the dishes
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Get changes meaning with its partner: get + adjective = become; get + noun = obtain.
get tired, get dark — get a job, get a message
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Learn these verbs inside collocations, never alone.
have breakfast, have a shower, have fun
When to use A2 Core Verbs
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Describing daily routine
Almost every routine sentence uses two or three core verbs.
I get up at seven, have breakfast and go to work.
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Make vs. do collocations
These two verbs divide a large set of fixed phrases between them, and the split has to be learned.
make a decision, make a mistake — do the shopping, do your homework
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Get with different meanings
Get is the most flexible verb in English and changes meaning entirely with context.
I got a letter. It's getting dark. I got home late. Do you get it?
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Building phrasal verbs
Core verbs plus a particle produce the most frequent phrasal verbs in the language.
get up, take off, put on, come back, give up, look after
make vs. do
Both translate to a single verb in many languages, which is why this pair causes so much trouble. The split is largely fixed and has to be memorised.
make — creating or causing
Producing something, or causing a result or reaction.
make dinner, make a noise, make a decision, make a mistake, make money
do — performing an activity
Carrying out tasks, work and unspecified actions.
do the washing, do homework, do business, do your best, do nothing
A2 Core Verbs in example sentences
- I have to make a decision by Friday.make for producing a decision.
- Have you done the shopping yet?do for performing a task.
- It's getting late — we should go.get meaning become.
- She took the train instead of driving.take with transport.
- Put your coat on, it's cold.put on as a separable phrasal verb.
- He gave up smoking last year.give up meaning stop.
- I didn't get what she meant.get meaning understand.
- They came back from Italy on Sunday.come back as a phrasal verb.
A2 Core Verbs in a real conversation
Count the core verbs — almost every content verb in this conversation is one of the ten.
Ella:Did you get my message about the meeting?
Sam:I did. I've made a few notes for it.
Ella:Can you take the minutes? I have to give the presentation.
Sam:Sure. What time does it start?
Ella:Ten. Put it in your calendar so you don't forget.
Sam:Done. I'll come early and get the room ready.
Common mistakes (and how to fix them)
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I did a big mistake.
I made a big mistake.
Mistakes are made, not done — collocation, not logic, decides.
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She makes her homework after school.
She does her homework after school.
Homework belongs to the do family of duties and tasks.
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I took a coffee with my friend.
I had a coffee with my friend.
In English you have food and drinks; take a coffee is a French/Spanish transfer.
Practise A2 Core Verbs today
Learn these verbs through their collocations rather than as isolated words.
- Make two lists of ten phrases each: one for make, one for do.
- Write six sentences using get with six different meanings.
- Describe your morning in eight sentences using only core verbs.
- Learn ten phrasal verbs built from these ten verbs and use each in a sentence.
A2 Core Verbs: frequently asked questions
How do I know whether to use make or do?
The general principle is that make is about creating or causing something, while do is about performing an activity, but there are enough exceptions that memorising the common collocations is faster. Learn them in chunks — make a decision, make a mistake, make an effort, do the housework, do a course, do business — rather than trying to reason each one out mid-sentence.
Why does get have so many meanings?
Because it is a very old, very short and very frequent word, and English has repeatedly extended it rather than borrowing new verbs. Its core senses are obtain, become, arrive and understand, and context makes the intended one clear. Some formal writing avoids get for this reason, preferring receive, become or obtain, but in speech it is indispensable.
What is a phrasal verb and why are they difficult?
A phrasal verb is a verb plus a particle such as up, off, on or out, where the combination often means something unrelated to the individual words. Give up means stop rather than donate; take off means remove or depart. The difficulty is that you cannot deduce the meaning, so each one must be learned like new vocabulary — despite being built from words you already know.
Should I learn these verbs before expanding my vocabulary?
Yes. Frequency in English is heavily skewed, and a few hundred words cover most everyday conversation. Knowing the ten core verbs thoroughly, including their main senses and their most common phrasal forms, will let you express far more than knowing several hundred specialised nouns. Depth on high-frequency vocabulary beats breadth on rare words at A2.