All about Regular and Irregular Verbs

Regular and Irregular Verbs: Verbs are the action words that describe what the subject is doing. Regular verbs and irregular verbs are types of verbs. Verbs are an essential part of speech and it is important to understand their usage to perform well in competitive English language proficiency exams. So, this blog brings to you a comprehensive guide on what regular and irregular verbs are, their usage, and examples along with practice exercises.

What are Regular Verbs

Regular verbs are a form of verbs that follow the normal rules of conjugation, that is, they follow a typical pattern for changing verbs into their past, past participle or future tense forms. Usually, -ed or -d is added to regular verbs when used in the past tense or in case the word ends with a ‘y’ then the ‘y’ is removed, and -ied is added.

Example:

• Maria accepts the award on his behalf.
• Maria accepted the award on his behalf.
• Maria will accept the award on his behalf.

Maria already had accepted the award on his behalf.

In the above example you can see the use of the word ‘accept’ in its present(accepts), simple past (accepted), future (will accept), and past participle (had accepted) form. 

Also Read: Duolingo English Test

What are Irregular Verbs 

Unlike regular verbs, irregular verbs do not follow the normal rules of conjugation to form their past, past participle, or future tense forms. In other words, any verb that does not add -ed, -ied, or -d to its past tense form is considered an irregular verb. Irregular verbs are sometimes also called strong verbs.

Example:

• I have a lot of work to do.
• Did you complete the work?
• The work was done.

In the above example you can see the use of the word ‘do’ in its present(do), simple past (did) and past participle (done) form.

Also Read: History of English Literature

Different Forms of Regular Verbs

Regular verbs follow the normal rules of conjugation when used in different tenses. In the past tense, -ed, -d, -ied are added to the present form of the verb. In the past participle tense, has/had is added before the past tense form. Here are the different types of regular and the spelling rules they follow that will make it easier to remember:

Regular Verbs that end in -e

Verbs that end in -e are changed to the past tense by adding -d

Examples:

• like – liked
• love – loved
• taste – tasted
• live – lived
• decide – decided 

Other examples could include: approve, behave, change, care, bake, argue, appreciate, bore, breathe, cause, charge, complete, escape, force, guide, hate, hope, invite,  move, manage, notice, owe, phone, recognise, remove, smile, snore, stare, taste, use, etc.

Also Read: Grammar for IELTS

Regular verbs that end in -y

• If the verb ends in a consonant and -y, then -y is removed and -ied is added to change it to the past tense.

Examples:

• Cry – cried
• Try – tried
• Dry – dried
• Carry – carried
• Apply – applied

Other examples could include: bully, bury, carry, clarify, copy, cry, deny, dry, empty, fancy, fry, horrify, hurry, identify, imply, marry, multiply, rely, reply, satisfy, supply, study, terrify, tidy, etc.

• If the verb ends in a vowel and -y, then -y is not removed and -ed is added to change it to the past tense. Like, play – played.

Examples: annoy, delay, destroy, enjoy, employ, spray, stay, etc.

Regular verbs that end in a single vowel and a consonant

• If a verb of a single syllable ends in a vowel and a consonant, then the consonant is doubled and -ed is added to change it to the past tense.

Examples:

• stop – stopped
• hop – hopped
• Ban – banned
• Chat – chatted
• Drag – dragged

Other examples could include: clap, clip, drop, fit, flip, grab, grin, grip, hug, jog, knit, mug, nod, pat, plan, rob, shop, skid, scrub, ship, skip, slip, snap, spot, star, stir, thin, top, trip, wrap, etc.

• In verbs with more syllables ending in a vowel and a consonant, the consonant is doubled and -ed is added if the stress falls on the last syllable to change it to the past tense.

Examples: 

• In verbs with more syllables ending in a vowel and a consonant where the stress doesn’t fall on the last syllable, the consonant is not doubled and -ed is added to change it to the past tense.

Examples: 

• enter – entered
• Open – opened 
• Swallow – swallowed

• In verbs ending in -l the consonant is always doubled after a single vowel.  

Examples:

• Travel – travelled
• Cancel – cancelled
• Label – labelled

Different Forms of Irregular Verbs

Irregular verbs can take up different forms in the past and past participle tense or they can remain exactly the same. Here are the different types of irregular verbs:

Verbs that Have Different Forms in Each Tense

This means that a verb has entirely different present, past, and past participle forms.

Examples: Let’s take the example of the verb ‘to be’. The verb ‘to be’ takes different forms in each tense-

• is/are in present tense
• was/were in past tense
• Been in past participle

We are going on a vacation.

He is skateboarding.

We were on a vacation.

He was skateboarding.

We have been on a vacation.

He has been skateboarding.

Here are a few other examples:

• Break, broke, broken 
• See, saw, seen
• Have, has, had
• Eat, ate, eaten
• Do, did, done 

Verbs that remain same in Past and Past Participle Forms

Some irregular verbs change once and are used in the form of past tense and past participle tense. 

Examples:  Let’s take the example of the verb ‘bring’.

I will bring the rest of the money tomorrow.

I bought this dress. 

She had bought it to frighten him with.

Here are a few other examples:

• Keep, kept, kept
• Leave, left, left
• Find, found, found
• Say, said, said
• Win, won, won

Verbs that Change only in the Past Tense

Some irregular verbs only change in the past tense. The present and past participle forms remain the same 

Examples:  Let’s take the example of the verb ‘come’.

I didn’t want to come tonight.

She came to the event last night.

He had come to apologise.

Here are some other examples:

• Run, ran, run
• Become, became, become
• Overcome, overcame, overcome

Verbs that don’t Change in any Tense

Some irregular verbs remain the same in all three forms. 

Examples: Let’s take the example of the verb ‘put’

She put on her red dress.

The dog was put to sleep.

She had put her shoes on before going into the garden.

Here are some other examples:

• Cut, cut, cut
• Fit, fit, fit
• Let, let, let
• Hit, hit, hit
• Hurt, hurt, hurt

Regular Verbs Examples

There are hundreds of words in the English language that are regular verbs and that follow the normal rules of conjugation. Here is a shortlist of examples  

Present	Past	Past Participle
Accept	Accepted	Accepted
Behave	Behaved	Behaved
Close	Closed	Closed
Disturb	Disturbed	Disturbed
Dress	Dressed	Dressed
Dry	Dried	Dried
Eliminate	Eliminated	Eliminated
Fix	Fixed	Fixed
Fry	Fried	Fried
Match	Matched	Matched
Name	Named	Named
Program	Programmed	Programmed
Protect	Protected	Protected
Review	Reviewed	Reviewed
Shop	Shopped	Shopped
Slow	Slowed	Slowed
Turn	Turned	Turned
Underline	Underlined	Underlined
Want	Wanted	Wanted

50 Most Common Irregular Verbs Examples

Here is a list of some of the most commonly used irregular verbs in the English language.

Present	Simple Past	Past Participle
beat	beat	beaten
begin	began	begun
break	broke	broken
bring	brought	brought
build	built	built
buy	bought	bought
choose	chose	chosen
come	came	come
cut	cut	cut
draw	drew	drawn
drive	drove	driven
fall	fell	fallen
feel	felt	felt
find	found	found
get	got	got/gotten (US)
give	gave	given
go	went	gone
grow	grew	grown
hear	heard	heard
hold	held	held
keep	kept	kept
know	knew	known
lead	led	led
leave	left	left
let	let	let
lie	lay	lain
lose	lost	lost
make	made	made
mean	meant	meant
meet	met	met
pay	paid	paid
put	put	put
read	read (pronounced as ‘red’)	read (pronounced as ‘red’)
rise	rose	risen
run	ran	run
say	said	said
see	saw	seen
send	sent	sent
set	set	set
show	showed	shown
sit	sat	sat
speak	spoke	spoken
spend	spent	spent
stand	stood	stood
take	took	taken
tell	told	told
think	thought	thought
understand	understood	understood
wear	wore	worn
write	wrote	written

Regular and Irregular Verbs Exercises

Now that you have a general idea about adverbs here are some exercises:

Exercise 1

Choose the correct form of the verb.

1.  I ____(hear) a new song on the radio.
2. They_____(swim) 500m.
3. Vienna _________ (look) very sad because she did not win the competition yesterday.
4.  I______(choose) steak for dinner.
5.  I______(send) you an email earlier.
6. My mother __________(drink) a cup of coffee with my father this morning.
7. Our friends _________ (watch) cartoons in my house a couple of weeks ago.
8.  We____(fly) to Sydney.
9.  The old man has _______better days (see).
10. The soldiers______(swear)that they would never surrender.

Answers: 

1. Heard
2. Swam
3. Looked
4. Chose
5. Sent
6. Drank
7. Watched
8. Flew 
9. Seen 
10. Swore 

Exercise 2

Choose the correct option.

1. Which one is wrong?
   1. cut – cut
   2. forget – forgot
   3. clean – cleaned
   4. leave – leaved
2. Did you ___________ what he said?
   1. understand
   2. understood
   3. understanding
   4. Understands
3. Odd one out.
   1. sing
   2. catch
   3. bite
   4. Look
4. Odd one out.
   1. hurt
   2. break
   3. read
   4. listen
5. Which one is wrong?
   1. fly – flew
   2. send – sent
   3. teach – thought
   4. win – won

Answers: 

1. Leave-leaved
2. Understand
3. Look
4. Listen
5. Teach-thought

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