Irregular Verbs
What Are Irregular Verbs?
Regular verbs add -ed for past tense:
- walk → walked → walked
Irregular verbs change in unpredictable ways:
- go → went → gone
- eat → ate → eaten
Most Common Irregular Verbs
Group 1: All Three Forms Different
| Base | Past | Past Participle |
|---|---|---|
| be | was/were | been |
| begin | began | begun |
| break | broke | broken |
| choose | chose | chosen |
| do | did | done |
| drink | drank | drunk |
| drive | drove | driven |
| eat | ate | eaten |
| fall | fell | fallen |
| fly | flew | flown |
| forget | forgot | forgotten |
| give | gave | given |
| go | went | gone |
| know | knew | known |
| ride | rode | ridden |
| ring | rang | rung |
| rise | rose | risen |
| see | saw | seen |
| sing | sang | sung |
| speak | spoke | spoken |
| steal | stole | stolen |
| swim | swam | swum |
| take | took | taken |
| throw | threw | thrown |
| wake | woke | woken |
| write | wrote | written |
Group 2: Past and Past Participle Same
| Base | Past | Past Participle |
|---|---|---|
| bring | brought | brought |
| build | built | built |
| buy | bought | bought |
| catch | caught | caught |
| feel | felt | felt |
| fight | fought | fought |
| find | found | found |
| get | got | got/gotten |
| have | had | had |
| hear | heard | heard |
| hold | held | held |
| keep | kept | kept |
| leave | left | left |
| lose | lost | lost |
| make | made | made |
| meet | met | met |
| pay | paid | paid |
| say | said | said |
| sell | sold | sold |
| send | sent | sent |
| sit | sat | sat |
| sleep | slept | slept |
| spend | spent | spent |
| stand | stood | stood |
| teach | taught | taught |
| tell | told | told |
| think | thought | thought |
| understand | understood | understood |
| win | won | won |
Group 3: All Three Forms Same
| Base | Past | 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 |
| read | read* | read* |
| set | set | set |
| shut | shut | shut |
| split | split | split |
| spread | spread | spread |
*Note: “read” changes pronunciation (present: /riːd/, past: /red/)
Common Mistakes
| Wrong | Right |
|---|---|
| I goed to the store. | I went to the store. |
| She has drank the water. | She has drunk the water. |
| He runned fast. | He ran fast. |
| They have ate dinner. | They have eaten dinner. |
| I bringed a gift. | I brought a gift. |
| She catched the ball. | She caught the ball. |
Irregular verbs must be memorized because they do not follow the standard -ed pattern. Group them by pattern to make learning easier: ring/rang/rung, sing/sang/sung, drink/drank/drunk all follow the same vowel shift.