Irregular Verbs (A Complete List of Irregular English Verbs)

What are irregular verbs?

This is a blissfully straightforward rule of English verb conjugations, and it’s the following: To denote the past time, the vast majority of verbs will add “ed”, (e.g., walk/walked, talk/talked, laugh/laughed). This is the regular verb conjugation, i.e., verbs that add “ed” in their past tense and past participial forms use the regular past tense ending.

 

Irregular verbs end in something other than “ed” in the past tense and past participle. The past tense of drive, for example, is drove, and the past participle is driven. Similarly, the simple past of eat is ate, and the past participle is eaten. Drive and eat are two irregular verbs that use a different simple past tense and past participle verb form.

Types of irregular verbs

If you search the topic of irregular verbs online, you’ll see comments saying that there’s no easy way to learn them, but it’s just something you have to memorize. This is not entirely false (you should memorize them), but it’s also not completely accurate. The most effective way to memorize the irregular verb forms is by learning the main patterns and irregular verb groups.

Irregular verbs with two forms in the simple past and as a past participle: drive, eat, bite, hide, ride, give, take, go.

Irregular verbs with one form in the simple past and as a past participle: caught, bought, sought, bled, sped, led.

Practice: Irregular verbs

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