Irregular Verbs

Linguistic Overview

Verbs come in various verb forms, and each form has its own conventions for how it changes its spelling and pronunciation from the base form (in most cases, there’s an adjusted or added ending). However, there are certain verbs that do not follow these conventions. We call these ‘Irregular Verbs’.

The vast majority of Irregular Verbs have alternate changes than the standard -ed ending when it comes to the past form and the Perfect/Passive Participle* form. But as shown on this page, there are a few other verbs that are irregular with other verb forms.

Irregular Verbs are important to know for two big reasons. First, a large portion of the most commonly-used verbs in English (and the verbs that English language learners are likely to learn first) happen to be irregular. Second, Irregular Verbs pop up in several grammar topics, including past tenses, all Perfect tenses, Passive Voice, and more.

* The Perfect Participle and the Passive Participle are generally considered one and the same. However, in rare cases there is a slight difference in these forms. This is highlighted nowhere more than in Irregular Verbs.

Verb Lists

BE, HAVE, & DO

The special verbs BE, HAVE, and DO — which can be either standard verbs or auxiliary verbs — tend to play by their own rules, including when it comes to their verb forms. Here are the various forms of these three special verbs:

		BE	HAVE	DO
PRESENT	Singular: 3^rd-Person	is	has	does
	Singular: 1^st-Person	am	have	do
	Singular: 2^nd-Person	are
	Plural	are
PAST	Singular: 3^rd-Person	was	had	did
	Singular: 1^st-Person	was
	Singular: 2^nd-Person	were
	Plural	were
PERFECT / PASSIVE PARTICIPLE		been		done

Notice that BE changes its form not only depending on whether the tense is past or present, but also depending on the person of the subject and on whether that subject is singular or plural, which makes BE an extremely unique verb.

Irregular Past & Participles

The term ‘Irregular Verbs’ is most commonly understood to be verbs that are consistent in their present forms, but that have a past form, a Perfect Participle form, or both different from the conventional -ed form that most verbs take.

There are just under 175 root verbs that have irregular past and/or Perfect Participle forms, which is a very small number compared to the total number of verbs in the English dictionary. However, half of the verbs in this list rank among the most commonly-used words in the English language; English speakers read, hear, speak, and write Irregular Verbs all the time.

Here are some things to know before browsing this list:

Some verbs have multiple possible forms for a certain category; this may depend on differing definitions, on dialects, or even on personal preference.
The † symbol along the left side denotes verbs that are gradually becoming regular over time (for instance, the past form of hoist was traditionally ‘hoist’, but many people today instead say ‘hoisted’).
Some verbs are irregular in standard British English, but not in standard American English. These are noted with ^BR. For the American version, simply use the conventional -ed ending instead.
The Passive Participle form is nearly identical to the Perfect Participle form, though there are occasional differences when it comes to Irregular Verbs. The fourth column is for distinctions between the Passive and Perfect Participle forms; ‘n/a’ means the verb is static and intransitive and has no Passive Participle; if left blank, then the Passive Participle is the same as the Perfect Participle for that word.

	BASE	PAST	PERFECT PARTICIPLE	PASSIVE PARTICIPLE (if different)	Note
	bear	bore	borne	born	¹
	beat	beat	beaten	-
	begin	began	begun	-
	bend	bent	bent	-
	bereave	bereft bereaved	bereft	-
	bet	bet	bet	-
	bid	bid; bade	bid; bade; bidden	bidden
	bind	bound	bound	-
	bite	bit	bitten	-
	bleed	bled	bled	-
	blow	blew	blown	-
	break	broke	broken	-
	breed	bred	bred	-
	bring	brought	brought	-	²
	build	built	built	-
^BR	burn	burnt	burnt	-
†	burst	burst	burst	-
	buy	bought	bought	-	²
	cast	cast	cast	-
	catch	caught	caught	-
	choose	chose	chosen	-
†	clad	clad	clad	-
	cleave	cleaved; clove	cleaved; cleft	cleft; cloven
	cling	clung	clung	-
	come	came	come	-
	cost	cost	cost	-
†	creep	crept	crept	-
	cut	cut	cut	-
	deal	dealt	dealt	-
†	dig	dug	dug	-
†	dive	dove	dived	n/a
	draw	drew	drawn	-
^BR	dream	dreamt	dreamt	-
	drink	drank	drunk	drunken
	drive	drove	driven	-
^BR	dwell	dwelt	dwelt	n/a
	eat	ate	eaten	-
	fall	fell	fallen	-
	feed	fed	fed	-
	feel	felt	felt	-
	fight	fought	fought	-
	find	found	found	-
	fit	fit	fit	fitted
	flee	fled	fled	-
	fling	flung	flung	-
	fly	flew	flown	-
	forsake	forsook	forsaken	-
	freeze	froze	frozen	-
	get	got	got; gotten	-
†	gild	gilt	gilt	gilded
	give	gave	given	-
	go	went	gone	-	³
	grind	ground	ground	-
	grow	grew	grown	-
†	hang	hung	hung	-	⁴
	hear	heard	heard	-
†	hew	hewed	hewn	-
	hide	hid	hidden	-
	hit	hit	hit	-
†	hoist	hoist	hoist	-
	hold	held	held	-
	hurt	hurt	hurt	-
	keep	kept	kept	-
†	kneel	knelt	knelt	n/a
†	knit	knit	knit	knitted
	know	knew	known	-
	lay	laid	laid	-
	lead	led	led	-
^BR	lean	leant	leant	-
†	leap	leapt	leapt	-
^BR	learn	learnt	learnt	learned
	leave	left	left	-
	lend	lent	lent	-
	let	let	let	-
†	lie	lay	lain	n/a
	light	lighted; lit	lit	lighted; lit
	lose	lost	lost	-
	make	made	made	-
	mean	meant	meant	-
	meet	met	met	-
	melt	melted	melted	molten	⁵
†	mow	mowed	mown	mowed
	pay	paid	paid	-
†	plead	pled	pled	-
	prove	proved	proved; proven	proven
	put	put	put	-
†	quit	quit	quit	-
	read	read	read	-	⁶
	rend	rent	rent	-
	rid	rid; ridded	rid	ridded
	ride	rode	ridden	-
	ring	rang	rung	-
	rise	rose	risen	-
	run	ran	run	-
†	saw	sawed	sawn	-
	say	said	said	-
	see	saw	seen	-
	seek	sought	sought	-
	sell	sold	sold	-
	send	sent	sent	-
	set	set	set	-
†	sew	sewed	sewn	-
	shake	shook	shaken	-
†	shear	sheared	shorn	-
	shed	shed	shed	-
	shine	shined; shone	shone	-	⁷
	shit	shit; shat	shit; shat	-
	shoot	shot	shot	-
†	show	showed	shown	-
	shrink	shrank	shrunk	shrunken
	shut	shut	shut	-
	sing	sang	sung	-
	sink	sank	sunk	sunken
	sit	sat	sat	n/a	⁸
	slay	slayed; slew	slayed; slain	slain
	sleep	slept	slept	n/a
	slide	slid	slid	-
	sling	slung	slung	-
†	slink	slunk	slunk	-
	slit	slit	slit	-
^BR	smell	smelt	smelt	-
	smite	smote	smitten; smote	smitten	⁹
	sneak	snuck	snuck	-
†	sow	sowed	sown	-
	speak	spoke	spoken	-
†	speed	sped	sped	-
^BR	spell	spelt	spelt	-
	spend	spent	spent	-
^BR	spill	spilt	spilt	-
	spin	spun	spun	-
	spit	spat	spat	-
	split	split	split	-
^BR	spoil	spoilt	spoilt	-
	spread	spread	spread	-
	spring	sprang; sprung	sprung	-
	stand	stood	stood	n/a
	steal	stole	stolen	-
	stick	stuck	stuck	-
	sting	stung	stung	-
	stink	stank	stunk	-
†	strew	strewed	strewn	-
	stride	strode	stridden	-
	strike	struck	struck	stricken
	string	strung	strung	-
†	strive	strived; strove	striven	-
	swear	swore	sworn	-
†	sweat	sweat	sweat	-
	sweep	swept	swept	-
†	swell	swelled	swelled	swollen	⁵
	swim	swam	swum	-
	swing	swung	swung	-
	take	took	taken	-
	teach	taught	taught	-
	tear	tore	torn	-
	tell	told	told	-
	think	thought	thought	-
†	thrive	throve	thriven	n/a
	throw	threw	thrown	-
†	thrust	thrust	thrust	-
	tread	trod	trod; trodden	trodden
	wake	woke	woken	-
	wear	wore	worn	-
†	weave	wove	woven	-
†	wed	wed	wed	wedded
	weep	wept	wept	-
†	wet	wet	wet	-
	win	won	won	-
	wind	wound	wound	-
	wring	wrung	wrung	-
	write	wrote	written	-

Notes:

‘Born’ typically refers specifically to bearing and giving birth to offspring, while ‘borne’ is used for other ways to carry someone or something.
In some dialects of American English — typically rural ones — it is common to say ‘broughten’ and ‘boughten’ for the Perfect and Passive Participles of bring and buy, respectively. Other dialects say ‘brung’ as the participles of bring.
When it comes to travel, the Perfect Participle ‘gone’ only expresses going to the destination. We can instead use the Perfect Participle ‘been’ to indicate both a going to and a return from the destination.
‘Hung’ applies to most definitions of hang, but when talking about hanging from a rope as an execution, we instead use ‘hanged’ for past and for Perfect/Passive Participles.
Melt and swell are generally regular verbs; it’s only with the Passive Participles ‘molten’ and ‘swollen’, used as adjectives, that melt and swell become irregular.
While ‘read’ and ‘read’ look identical, they are pronounced differently: the base/present /rɪd/ vowel-shifts into the past and the participle /red/.
‘Shined’ is used in a transitive sense: when the verb is followed by a direct object. ‘Shone’ is used in the intransitive and patientive sense: when there is no direct object, but the subject itself is what’s shining.
Certain words rely on similar verbs for their Passive Participle forms. While the intransitive sit doesn’t have its own passive, it’s related to the transitive seat, and we can use the Passive Participle ‘seated’.
Smite usually means striking a blow, but the Passive Participle ‘smitten’ can refer to becoming enamored or otherwise generally being affected by something.

The verbs in this table are limited to root verbs. Compound verbs and verbs with prefixes that feature these roots are irregular in the same way as their roots. For example, the terms broadcast, forgive, mistake, and understand take the past forms of ‘broadcast‘, ‘forgave‘, ‘mistook‘, and ‘understood‘ and the Perfect Participle forms of ‘broadcast‘, ‘forgiven‘, ‘mistaken‘, and ‘understood‘, respectively.

Irregular Present

Verbs take on an -s ending to their present forms when accompanying 3^rd-person singular subjects. However, there are three verbs in the English language that have irregular 3^rd-person singular present forms. The first two are BE and HAVE, taking the forms ‘is’ (not ‘~~bes~~‘) and ‘has’ (not ‘~~haves~~‘), as you can see in the above section.

The third verb with an irregular present is say, which takes the form ‘says‘ for 3^rd-person singular subjects. While the spelling of ‘says’ appears regular, it’s the pronunciation that makes it irregular: the vowel sound changes from the base form. While ‘say’ is pronounced /seɪ/, ‘says’ is not pronounced /seɪz/, but /sɛz/. It is the only verb in English that changes its pronunciation in this way.

Applications

Irregular Verbs are featured most prominently in different tenses, especially the Past Simple tense and various Perfect tenses. But we see them wherever Perfect/Passive Participles are used, including in Passive Voice, after Perfect Modals, as Passive Adjectives, leading Participial Phrases, and in perfect Causatives.

While that may seem like a disparate assortment of grammar topics, they are all actually related: they carry a meaning of the aftereffects of a verb. Visit the Perfect/Passive Participles page to learn more.

Advanced Concepts

Vowel Shifts

Irregular Verb forms are not just about spelling; they’re about pronunciation as well. Note how the past ‘read’ sounds different from the present ‘read’, even though they’re spelled the same.

Roughly two thirds of all irregular root verbs undergo a vowel shift, meaning that the vowel sound — if not the vowel letter(s) — of the last syllable changes. Sometimes there are other changes as well, like adding a letter or two to the end, but sometimes the vowel shift is the only change.

The vast majority of the time, a vowel sound shifts to one produced further back in the mouth (consider the [awt] endings like ‘catch’→’caught’ or the i/a/u sets like ‘drink’→’drank’→’drunk’). However, there are exceptions to this rule: most notably, the past forms that end in [ew] like ‘grew’ and ‘knew’.

Non-Gradable Participle Adjectives

Passive Adjectives that come from irregular Passive Participle forms are likely (though not necessarily) to be non-gradable adjectives. For instance, we wouldn’t say “somewhat fallen”, “very proven”, or “too sunken”; the relevant nouns simply are these adjectives, or they are not.

Modal Verbs

Modal verbs are defective and do not have the traditional verb forms. There may be ways to indicate a modal as past, but it depends on the flavor. Most notably, when it comes to habits, the past of ‘can’ is ‘could’.

For certain unreal grammar topics and for Indirect Speech (like Reported Speech or Indirect Questions), we sometimes backshift a verb. Usually, backshifting means changing the form of the verb into one form further into the past. For modals, we instead use certain pairings:

‘can’ → ‘could’
‘may’ → ‘might’
‘shall’ → ‘should’
‘will’ → ‘would’

To backshift further, we add ‘have’ after the modal. We call these pairings (‘may have’, ‘could have’, etc.) perfect modals.

Teaching Tips

Ignore Participles with Beginners

When students first learn Irregular Verbs, it’s in learning the Past Simple tense. While most Irregular Verb lists feature a column for Perfect Participles, this only clutters the page at best, and at worst confuses students. Remove these columns before sharing such lists with students; they won’t need to know Perfect Participles until they’ve advanced a proficiency level or two.

Similarly, beginners don’t need to see an expansive list of every Irregular Verb. Cut lists down to just the most common verbs that students are likely to encounter for a while.

Group Verbs by Change

Most Irregular Verb lists are organized alphabetically, which is helpful when you’d like to look up a particular verb. But if you’re just trying to familiarize yourself with the changes of Irregular Verbs, or even memorize them, then it’s more helpful to place verbs into groups according to how they change from one form to another. For instance, you might want to put ‘bound’, ‘found’, ‘ground’, and ‘wound’ together in one group. There are multiple ways to form groups like these, so your class can do whatever makes sense for them. Even the exercise of arranging verbs like this will help increase familiarity and understanding.

For assistance in sorting or grouping Irregular Verbs, check out Insights to English’s interactive list!

English Grammar Encyclopedia for Educators