Irregular Verbs with Examples

Introduction

Irregular verbs play a significant role in sentence construction. And there are certain irregular verb forms that need to be memorised. In this tutorial, we will understand essential facts about irregular verbs with related examples.

What are Irregular Verbs?

Irregular verbs do not accept the rules of English grammar while transforming to past participle and past forms. These verbs do not follow standard grammar rules while taking part in various tenses.

For example, the irregular verb 'sing' becomes 'sang' and 'sung', respectively, after transforming into simple past and past participle forms.

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How Are Irregular Verbs Different from Other Verbs?

Irregular verbs are different from other verb forms. Other verbs, unlike irregular verbs, take 'ed' or 'd' as a suffix to change into past or past participle. In contrast, there is no irregular verb that follows such a rule while becoming past participle or past. The only way to use correct irregular verbs is to memorise the verb forms.

Regular verb vs Irregular verb examples:

• I danced at the party. ('danced' is the past form of the verb 'dance'.)

• I began to write letters to my mother. ('began' is the past form of the verb 'begin')

From the above examples, it is clear that irregular verb forms maintain no rule while transforming. Here, 'dance' and 'begin' are regular and irregular verbs, respectively.

Uses of Irregular Verbs

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• The simple present form of the irregular verb cannot be changed.

  For example, the irregular verb 'sing' is 'sing' in the simple present form. There is an addition of 's' depending on the number of the noun. So, it is 'sings' with the singular noun. And if the noun is plural, then it is 'sing'.

  So, the problem arises with the irregular verb forms when these are conjugated in simple past, present perfect or other tenses.

• Like regular verbs, irregular verbs can be transitive or intransitive verbs. And irregular verbs can act as linking verbs, stative verbs and also action verbs. And irregular verbs follow the subject-verb-agreement to fit with the subject of the sentence or the clause.

Strong verbs vs Weak verbs

All strong verbs are irregular, whereas some weak verbs are irregular. The vowel of the strong verb can change while transforming into the past form.

For example, 'blow' becomes 'blew'. The vowel of the weak verb does not change.

For example, 'play' becomes 'played'.

An example of the irregular weak verb is 'sleep'. Both past and past participle of 'sleep' is conjugated as 'slept'. There are irregular verbs that do not change forms while changing tenses like 'bet'.

Conjugating Irregular Verbs and Different Groups

Understanding to conjugate irregular verbs can be more complicated than regular verbs.

Here are the three groups of irregular verbs to understand irregular verb forms.

Group 1

Irregular verbs that do not change spelling while changing forms are in this group. The spelling remains the same in the base, past and past participle forms. So, you must be careful while understanding the meaning of such verbs. Relating such verbs to the context of the sentence makes things easier to understand.

Here are some examples of such verbs:

Base	Simple Past	Past Participle
Cut	Cut	Cut
Hit	Hit	Hit
Put	Put	Put
Shut	Shut	Shut
Set	Set	Set
Let	Let	Let
Cast	Cast	Cast
Burst	Burst	Burst
Split	Split	Split
Thrust	Thrust	Thrust
Broadcast	Broadcast	Broadcast
Quit	Quit	Quit
Hurt	Hurt	Hurt
Read	Read	Read
Spread	Spread	Spread

The pronunciation of the irregular verb 'read' changes in the simple past and past participle forms.

Group 2

Irregular verbs that have the exact spelling in the simple past and past participle forms come under this group.

Here are some of such irregular verbs:

Base	Simple Past	Past Participle
Hear	Heard	Heard
Bend	Bent	Bent
Find	Found	Found
Bring	Brought	Brought
Catch	Caught	Caught
Fight	Fought	Fought
Build	Built	Built
Think	Thought	Thought
Hang	Hung	Hung
Buy	Bought	Bought
Bind	Bound	Bound
Lose	Lost	Lost
Make	Made	Made

Group 3

Irregular verbs with different spelling in each form – base, simple past, past participle, come in this group.

Some examples of such irregular verbs are the following:

Base	Simple Past	Past Participle
Steal	Stole	Stolen
Drink	Drank	Drunk
Give	Gave	Given
Sink	Sank	Sunk
Fly	Flew	Flown
Take	Took	Taken
Eat	Ate	Eaten
Shrink	Shrank	Shrunk
Arise	Arose	Arisen
Break	Broke	Broken
Bite	Bit	Bitten
Ride	Rode	Ridden
Ring	Rang	Rung
Shake	Shook	Shaken
Tear	Tore	Torn
Wake	Woke	Woken
Grow	Grew	Grown

Conclusion

Now we know the types of irregular verbs and their uses. We have got an overview and details of the irregular verbs from this tutorial. The lists of irregular verbs will help you to grow the vocabulary too!

FAQs

Q1. What is an irregular verb?

Ans. An irregular verb neither follows nor accepts the rules of the English grammar while changing to past and past participle forms.

Q2. Why do we call it 'irregular verbs'?

Ans. Irregular verbs do not follow general rules while changing to past and past participle, unlike regular verbs. So, we call it 'irregular verbs'.

Q3. Can a weak verb be an irregular verb?

Ans. Some weak verbs can be irregular verbs. For example, weep (base), wept (simple past), and wept (past participle). So, if the vowel sound and the ending of the verb change like this, then it is an irregular weak verb.

Q4. State the difference between regular and irregular verbs.

Ans. The spelling of the irregular verbs changes differently (or sometimes does not change) while transforming into simple past and past participle forms. Regular verbs change into simple past and past participle forms by taking the suffix '-ed' or '-d'. But irregular verbs do not follow such general grammatical rules.

Q5. How many types of irregular verbs are there?

Ans. There are generally three types of irregular verbs.

• Irregular verbs that have the same spelling in base, simple past and past participle forms

• Irregular verbs that change spelling in both simple past and past participle forms differently

• Irregular verbs that have the same spelling in both simple past and past participle forms