Irregular Verbs
Irregular verbs are an important feature of English. We use
irregular verbs a lot when speaking, less when writing. Of course, the most
famous English verb of all, the verb "to be", is irregular.
What is the difference between regular verbs and irregular verbs?
| |
Base Form |
Past Simple |
Past Participle |
| With regular verbs, the rule is
simple... |
| The past simple and past participle always end
in -ed: |
finish |
finished |
finished |
| stop |
stopped |
stopped |
| work |
worked |
worked |
| But with irregular verbs, there is no
rule... |
| Sometimes the verb changes completely: |
sing |
sang |
sung |
| Sometimes there is "half" a change: |
buy |
bought |
bought |
| Sometimes there is no change: |
cut |
cut |
cut |
One good way to learn irregular verbs is to try sorting them
into groups, as above.
| If in doubt, a good dictionary can tell you if
a verb is regular or irregular. |
|
Here is a list
of irregular verbs in English.