Been There, Done That - Irregular Past Forms

These two verbs, along with many others, have the '-i-' => '-a-' => '-u-' vowel change ('Today I sing, yesterday I sang, many times in my life I have sung'). Similar are:
begin, drink, ring, spring, stink.
If someone is in a difficult situation (like these boat people) where they will either succeed and survive or not, this is sometimes called a 'sink-or-swim' position, which makes a nice bright clear phrase in English. If the suddenness of it brings on the people's adrenaline, we also refer to the 'fight or flight' decision ~ in more primitive times, a person might be in circumstances needing urgent action, and they had to decide whether to 'fight' or 'flee' (noun: 'flight', like also from 'flying'). Either of these responses would need energy and muscle power, with their body getting itself ready for activity.

Two here that do not quite match, but will remind you of further verbs that form similarly to each.

These two verbs belong in a similar group with 'stick' and 'swing'. The verb 'win' changes its sound in the same way too, but the spelling does not exactly help (written as 'won', but pronounced as though the vowel were a short U, to rhyme with the number '1').

Two more very common irregular forms, both to do with communication (conveying and remembering information).

The past form of 'to read' is 'read' (written the same, but pronounced to rhyme with 'red' and 'bed' rather than with the long 'E'); the past form of 'leave' is identical with 'left' as in 'left and right'.

This is a pair that almost rhymes: 'write => wrote => written' ; 'drive => drove=> driven '.
In your own dictionary or verb-book, you may have a long alphabetical listing of irregular verbs, which probably looks like a big challenge to learn ... particularly if it is listed alphabetically according to the present form of the verb, rather than which 'family' each verb belongs to, in terms of how it changes in the past version.
You may find it more helpful to group the verbs according to how they change in the past forms, and in particular how the vowels change. If your first language happens to be German or a related language, you may find this quite natural ('sing / sang / sung', etc.).

These two match nicely, don't they? (Except when it comes to wearing tidy clothes!)
If you are buying something second-hand (it could be clothing, a car or bike, even a house!), it is usual to accept that the previous owners will have been using it, so it will no longer look brand new. We call this 'wear and tear' (or even 'fair wear and tear': i.e. it would only be 'fair' to allow for the item being a bit scratched here and there).

Two very common irregulars here, not just for sports fans!

The past participle of 'put' does not change from the present form of the verb. There are (surprisingly!) many short common verbs that do not change, like this: 'cut, 'fit', 'let', 'set' and 'shut' are amongst these.

These two past forms rhyme together: the '-ea-' in 'meant' is pronounced as a 'short E', as in 'bread' and 'dead'.