An irregular verb is one whose past tense and past participle forms don’t adhere to a consistent conjugation pattern. Unlike irregular verbs, regular verbs form their past tense and past participles by simply adding “-ed” to the base form (e.g., “talk” becomes “talked”).

Regular vs. Irregular Verbs

Verbs fall into two categories: regular and irregular.

Regular verbs follow a predictable rule, where the simple past and past participle are created by adding “-ed” to the base verb.
Examples of regular verbs:

• I played soccer yesterday.
• Adria has played tennis since childhood.

On the other hand, irregular verbs don’t follow a consistent pattern. Their past tense and past participle forms can vary greatly, and sometimes these forms are different from one another.
Examples of irregular verbs:

• We ate at a local café.
• Ken has eaten takeout every evening this week.

Irregular verbs are verbs that break away from the typical conjugation patterns. Instead of simply adding “-ed” to form the past tense and past participle, they each have their own unique forms. This lack of regularity can make them tricky to master, requiring English learners to memorize them individually.

To illustrate, let’s compare “walk” and “run.” “Walk” is a regular verb, while “run” is irregular. To form the past tense and past participle of “walk,” you simply add “-ed,” while “run” changes entirely.

Example Conjugation:

Base Form | Simple Past Tense | Past Participle
walk | walked | walked
run | ran | run

As you can see, “walk” follows the regular rule, but “run” doesn’t. Here’s how they look in sentences:

• We walked to the park yesterday.
• He has run in marathons before.

Because of the unpredictability of irregular verbs, there’s no shortcut to learning them other than memorization. Below is a list of common irregular verbs along with explanations to help you understand their unique forms.

Understanding Irregular Verbs

Irregular verbs don’t follow the standard rules of conjugation. While most regular verbs add “-ed” or “-d” to form the past tense and past participle, irregular verbs each have distinct forms. For instance, the verb “sing” changes to “sang” in the past tense and “sung” as the past participle, whereas a regular verb like “dance” simply adds “-d” or “-ed.”

Example Conjugation:
Base Form | Simple Past Tense | Past Participle
dance | danced | danced
sing | sang | sung

In sentences:

• We sang and danced throughout the evening.
• I have sung in a choir before, but I’ve never danced in public.
• She enjoys songs sung by professional artists.

This illustrates the flexibility and complexity of irregular verbs, making them a unique part of English grammar.

Base Form	Past Simple (V2)	Past Participle (V3)
arise	arose	arisen
awake	awoke	awoken
be	was/were	been
bear	bore	born(e)
beat	beat	beaten
become	became	become
begin	began	begun
bend	bent	bent
bet	bet	bet
bind	bound	bound
bite	bit	bitten
bleed	bled	bled
blow	blew	blown
break	broke	broken
breed	bred	bred
bring	brought	brought
broadcast	broadcast	broadcast
build	built	built
burn	burnt/burned	burnt/burned
burst	burst	burst
buy	bought	bought
can	could	… (been able)
catch	caught	caught
choose	chose	chosen
cling	clung	clung
come	came	come
cost	cost	cost
creep	crept	crept
cut	cut	cut
deal	dealt	dealt
dig	dug	dug
do	did	done
draw	drew	drawn
dream	dreamt/dreamed	dreamt/dreamed
drink	drank	drunk
drive	drove	driven
eat	ate	eaten
fall	fell	fallen
feed	fed	fed
feel	felt	felt
fight	fought	fought
find	found	found
fly	flew	flown
forbid	forbade	forbidden
forget	forgot	forgotten
forgive	forgave	forgiven
freeze	froze	frozen
get	got	got
give	gave	given
go	went	gone
grind	ground	ground
grow	grew	grown
hang	hung	hung
have	had	had
hear	heard	heard
hide	hid	hidden
hit	hit	hit
hold	held	held
hurt	hurt	hurt
keep	kept	kept
kneel	knelt	knelt
know	knew	known
lay	laid	laid
lead	led	led
lean	leant/leaned	leant/leaned
learn	learnt/learned	learnt/learned
leave	left	left
lend	lent	lent
lie (in bed)	lay	lain
lie (to not tell the truth)	lied	lied
light	lit/lighted	lit/lighted
lose	lost	lost
make	made	made
may	might	…
mean	meant	meant
meet	met	met
mow	mowed	mown/mowed
must	had to	…
overtake	overtook	overtaken
pay	paid	paid
put	put	put
read	read	read
ride	rode	ridden
ring	rang	rung
rise	rose	risen
run	ran	run
saw	sawed	sawn/sawed
say	said	said
see	saw	seen
sell	sold	sold
send	sent	sent
set	set	set
sew	sewed	sewn/sewed
shake	shook	shaken
shall	should	…
shed	shed	shed
shine	shone	shone
shoot	shot	shot
show	showed	shown
shrink	shrank	shrunk
shut	shut	shut
sing	sang	sung
sink	sank	sunk
sit	sat	sat
sleep	slept	slept
slide	slid	slid
smell	smelt	smelt
sow	sowed	sown/sowed
speak	spoke	spoken
spell	spelt/spelled	spelt/spelled
spend	spent	spent
spill	spilt/spilled	spilt/spilled
spin	spun	spun
spit	spat	spat
spread	spread	spread
stand	stood	stood
steal	stole	stolen
stick	stuck	stuck
sting	stung	stung
stink	stank	stunk
strike	struck	struck
swear	swore	sworn
sweep	swept	swept
swell	swelled	swollen/swelled
swim	swam	swum
swing	swung	swung
take	took	taken
teach	taught	taught
tear	tore	torn
tell	told	told
think	thought	thought
throw	threw	thrown
understand	understood	understood
wake	woke	woken
wear	wore	worn
weep	wept	wept
will	would	…
win	won	won
wind	wound	wound
write	wrote	written