Irregular verbs
What are regular and irregular verbs?
Why do we say that some verbs are regular and some are irregular? The difference lies in how we make their second and third forms — the past simple and the past participle.
If the verb is regular, we add -ed at the end to form both the past simple and the past participle.
For example
(buy — bought — bought) He buys fresh bread every day. He bought some bread in the morning. He has just bought some bread.
(see — saw — seen) I see what you mean. I saw Julia yesterday. Have you seen my glasses?
If the verb is irregular, it means that it belongs to a special group of exceptions. Its second and third forms must be memorized because we can't apply the rule of adding -ed.
For example
(buy — bought — bought) He buys fresh bread every day. He bought some bread in the morning. He has just bought some bread.
(see — saw — seen) I see what you mean. I saw Julia yesterday. Have you seen my glasses?
How can we learn irregular verbs?
There are about 180 irregular verbs in total, although not all of them are widely used. If we take a look at the list of all irregular verbs, we'll see that there are certain patterns in their forms. So, we can group the verbs in different ways for better memorization, for instance by the similarity of forms, patterns of letters or sounds.
Grouping by similar forms:
- all 3 forms are similar, like
| infinitive | past simple | past participle |
|---|---|---|
| bet | bet | bet |
| cost | cost | cost |
| cut | cut | cut |
| hit | hit | hit |
| hurt | hurt | hurt |
| let | let | let |
| put | put | put |
| quit | quit | quit |
| set | set | set |
| shut | shut | shut |
| spread | spread | spread |
- 2nd and 3d forms are similar, like
| infinitive | past simple | past participle |
|---|---|---|
| build | built | built |
| dig | dug | dug |
| find | found | found |
| get | got | got |
| have | had | had |
| hear | heard | heard |
| lose | lost | lost |
| make | made | made |
| pay | paid | paid |
| say | said | said |
| sell | sold | sold |
| spend | spent | spent |
| win | won | won |
- 1st and 3rd forms are similar, like
| infinitive | past simple | past participle |
|---|---|---|
| become | became | become |
| come | came | come |
| run | ran | run |
Grouping by patterns of letters:
- -ght in the 2nd and 3rd forms, like
| infinitive | past simple | past participle |
|---|---|---|
| bring | brought | brought |
| buy | bought | bought |
| catch | caught | caught |
| fight | fought | fought |
| teach | taught | taught |
| think | thought | thought |
- alternation of i - a - u, like
| infinitive | past simple | past participle |
|---|---|---|
| begin | began | begun |
| drink | drank | drunk |
| ring | rang | rung |
| sing | sang | sung |
| swim | swam | swum |
Grouping by sound patterns:
- a long /i:/ sound changes to a short /e/, like
| infinitive | past simple | past participle |
|---|---|---|
| feel | felt | felt |
| keep | kept | kept |
| lead | led | led |
| leave | left | left |
| mean | meant | meant |
| meet | met | met |
| read | read | read |
| sleep | slept | slept |
These are only a few suggested groupings that you can use for faster learning and memorization. You can invent your own mnemonics. It is recommended to concentrate on the most common, widely used verbs first. You can learn irregular verbs the way you learn new words and/or practise them in exercises — separately and in sentences.