Irregular Verbs
1. Regular verbs
Regular verbs form their past and past participle forms by adding –ed to the end of the verbs.
Base form | Past form | Past participle |
walk love hate finish | walked loved hated finished | walked loved hated finished |
2. Irregular verbs
Irregular verbs form their past and past participle forms differently from regular verbs. They usually do not use the –ed ending.
Base form | Past form | Past participle |
think eat | thought ate | thought eaten |
Some verbs can have both regular and irregular forms.
Base form | Past form | Past participle |
dream learn | dreamt/dreamed learnt/learned | dreamt/dreamed learnt/learned |
3. All forms the same
In some cases, all the three forms (present, past and participle) are the same:
Base form | Past form | Past participle |
cut put read hit bet burst set shut | cut put read hit bet burst set shut | cut put read hit bet burst set shut |
4. Two forms are the same
Base form and past participle are the same:
Base form | Past form | Past participle |
come become run | came became ran | come become run |
Base form and past participle are the same:
Base form | Past form | Past participle |
keep mean pay feel | kept meant paid felt | kept meant paid felt |
5. Ending in –en
Sometimes the past participle can end in –en. The -en can attach to the base form or to the past form:
Base form | Past form | Past participle |
choose fall speak give write speak shake eat | chose fell spoke gave wrote spoke shook ate | chosen fallen spoken given written spoken shaken eaten |
6. All forms are different
Sometimes all the three forms of the irregular verb are different:
Base form | Past form | Past participle |
go see grow blow shrink sing swim | went saw grew blew shrank sang swam | gone seen grown blown shrunk sung swum |
