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The English Irregular Verbs

A Change Pattern Based Classification – Part 2

Part 1

Most of the verbs in English are regular verbs, meaning that they add the ed ending to form both the simple past and the past participle forms, which are identical, such as work-worked-worked. However, there is a large number of irregular verbs (about 450, but only about 200 in common use) that form their simple past and past participle forms with a vowel change, such as in begin-began-begun (see table below). Some irregular verbs do not change form at all ( put-put-put). Irregular verbs originate mostly from Old English, while any new verb coined in later periods tends to be regular. Still, the ten most used verbs in English are irregular.

Another distinction is between weak and strong verbs. In weak verbs, the simple past and past participle forms are identical, bearing a d or t ending ( think-thought-thought). In strong verbs the simple past and past participle are usually distinct, with the past participle having an en ending ( break-broke-broken). The classification of verbs to weak and strong in Modern English is less important for learners, so you can suffice with the regular-irregular distinction.

A user-friendly way to study English irregular verbs:

Since linguistic classifications for irregular verbs tend to be too complicated for non-academics, we suggest that you use our study tables, which bring together irregular verbs with similar change patterns in small groups. This kind of grouping aids your memory, which will strengthen with practice. Study the tables and pay attention to the verbs you find useful for your purposes. You could also read the table headings if it helps you, or simply focus on the verbs themselves. A good memorizing tip involves creating flash cards with the different groups, as explained on our vocabulary strategies pages. Remember that for looking up irregulars verbs after you have learned them, you have an alphabetical list at the back of any dictionary or grammar book for easy referencing.

You will notice that in some verb parts there are two correct forms. A general rule of thumb here is that the regular verb option (with ed, no vowel change) is more commonly used in American English (AmE), whereas the irregular option (with vowel change) is still in use in British English (BrE). Moreover, there may also be finer nuances in meaning pertaining to the usage of the former or the latter. In any case, consult your dictionary if you are not sure about the exact usage.

The following irregular verb tables are sorted according to V1,V2, and V3 forms. Here is a quick reminder for these verb forms:

• Uses of the 3 main verb forms:

V1=base form	• Present Simple • “Future Simple”	• I write in English every day. • I will write an English essay tomorrow.
V2=Past Simple	• Past Simple only !	• Yesterday, I wrote 2 poems in English.
V3=Past participle	• perfect tenses • passive forms • passive adjective	• I have already written my English paper. • This novel was written by Charles Dickens. • This story is well-written.

English Irregular Verbs Study Tables – Part 2

The following irregular verb categories 4-7 continue categories 1-3, found in Part 1 of this article.

Category 4: Vowel change, V3 ending with (e)n

group 10: V2 and V3 with long /o / sound
break	broke	broken
choose	chose	chosen
freeze	froze	frozen
speak	spoke	spoken
steal	stole	stolen
awake	awoke \ awaked	awoken \ awaked
wake	woke \ waked	woken \ waked
weave	wove	woven

group 11: V2 long o sound, V3 shirt /i/ sound
arise	arose	arisen
rise	rose	risen
*ride	rode	*ri dden
drive	drove	driven
*write	wrote	*wri tten

group 12: The following verbs:
*bite	bit	*bi tten
*hide	hid	*hi dden
eat	ate	eaten
give	gave	given
forgive	forgave	forgiven
forbid *	forbad(e)	forbi dden
* bid ( to command, farewell)	bade	*bi dden
* forget	forgot	*forgo tten
get	got	* go tten (AmE) \ got (BrE)
shake	shook	shaken
take	took	taken
see	saw	seen
beat	beat	beaten
fall	fell	fallen
lie ( down to rest)	lay	lain

Watch Out !
Do not confuse lie (tell a lie, regular), lie (down to rest, irregular), and lay (the table, irregular).

*lie (tell a lie)	lied	lied
lie (down to rest)	lay	lain
lay (the table, eggs)	laid	laid

group 13: the ear-ore-orn pattern
bear	bore	born
swear	swore	sworn
tear	tore	torn
wear	wore	worn

group 14: V1 with ow, V2 with ew, V3 with own
blow	blew	blown
grow	grew	grown
know	knew	known
throw	threw	thrown
fly	flew	flown
draw	drew	*dr awn

Category 5: regular V2, regular or irregular V3

group 15
show	showed	showed \ shown
sow	sowed	sowed \ sown
mow	mowed	mowed \ mown
swell	swelled	swelled \ swollen
sew	sewed	sewed \ sewn
*shine (the shoes)	shined	shined
*shine (brightly)	shown	shown

Category 6: vowel change, no ending, V2=V3

group 16: vowel change pattern, no ending
dig	dug	dug
stick	stuck	stuck
spin	spun	spun
sting	stung	stung
strike	struck	struck
swing	swung	swung
*hang (a man)	hanged	hanged
*hang (a picture)	hung	hung
slide	slid	slid
light	lighted \ lit	lighted \ lit
shoot	shot	shot

group 17: vowel change pattern i - ou - ou
bind	bound	bound
find	found	found
grind	ground	ground
wind	wound	wound

group 18: vowel change ee - e - e
bleed	bled	bled
feed	fed	fed
flee	fled	fled
*lead	led	led
*speed	speeded \ sped	speeded \ sped

Category 7: The craziest verbs !

group 19: vowel change pattern i - a - u
begin	began	begun
drink	drank	drunk
ring	rang	rung
shrink	shrank	shrunk
sing	sang	sung
sink	sank	sunk
spin	span \ spun	spun
spring	sprang	sprung
swim	swam	swum

group 20: vowel change, V1=V3
come	came	come
become	became	become
run	ran	run

group 21: miscellaneous
the verb to be
am is are	was was were	been
go	went	gone
*dive (jumped head first)	dove	dived
*dive (scuba-diving)	dived	dived
do	did	done
can	could
may	might
hold	held	held
stand	stood	stood
understand	understood	understood
sit	sat	sat
babysit	babysat	babysat
win	won	won
lose	lost	lost

Summary

This has been a review about the irregular verbs in English grammar. As these verbs are highly used in both spoken and written language, you should master their usage rather early on as you progress with your English writing. Reviewing the irregular verbs is not enough to make you use them correctly. The more you notice them up in your reading, and more importantly, use them properly in your writing, the better you will use them. The WhiteSmoke English grammar and writing software is an excellent solution to check up on your grammar, using a highly advanced contextually-based grammar engine.

This has been the second and final part of our review on the irregular verbs in English.