IRREGULAR VERB

IRREGULAR VERB. A VERB that does not follow the general rules for verb forms. Verbs in English are irregular if they do not have a normal -ed form like talked, walked. The -ed form has two functions: past and past participle. In some irregular verbs, these functions are served by different forms. Contrast He talked for a long time and He has talked for a long time with He spoke for a long time and He has spoken for a long time. There are other kinds of irregularity: shut serves as base form and -ed form. Since for all verbs (regular and irregular) the -s and -ing forms are constructed from the base by regular rules, it is only necessary to cite the base, past, and -ed forms to characterize irregular verbs. These three are termed the principal parts of the verb and are always given in the order: base, past, -ed participle. Many irregular verbs exhibit changes in the middle vowel for one or both of the last two principal parts (sing, sang, sung) and have an -en inflection for the -ed participle (speak, spoke, spoken).

Forms of BE

The verb be is highly irregular, with eight forms: base be; present am (first-person singular), is (the -s forms for third-person singular), are (second-person singular and all plurals); past was (first- and third-person singular) and were (second-person singular and all plurals); -ing form being; -ed participle been. The -s forms of have, do, say are irregular (has, does, says), though the irregularity in pronunciation is obscured by the spelling of does, says.

Modal verbs

The modal auxiliaries have a defective paradigm since they only have the base forms and irregularly constructed past forms (can, could; may, might). Must is further exceptional in having only the base form.

All new verbs in English are regular, as in glitz, glitzed, glitzed. Some irregular verbs also have regular forms: sew, sewed, sewn but also the regular sew, sewed, sewed. There are also some differences in irregular verbs between BrE and AmE: both dived and dove are found in AmE as pasts of dive, but only dived occurs in BrE. Gotten is used in AmE as an -ed participle in certain senses of the verb: We've gotten more than we can use, but not We've got to do a lot better. See STRONG VERB, T, WEAK VERB.

IRREGULAR VERBS IN ENGLISH

The table below gives the principal parts for most irregular verbs, including common alternatives and differences between BrE and AmE. Generally, the alternatives are possible in both varieties, but the form labelled BrE or AmE is found especially in that variety.

Base	Past	-ed participle
awake	awoke, awaked	awoken, awaked
beat	beat	beaten, beat
become	became	become
bend	bent	bent
bet	bet, betted (BrE)	bet, betted (BrE)
bind	bound	bound
bite	bit	bitten, bit
bleed	bled	bled
blow	blew	blown
break	broke	broken
bring	brought	brought
build	built	built
burn	burnt (BrE),	burnt (BrE),
	burned	burned
buy	bought	bought
catch	caught	caught
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 (BrE), dreamed	dreamt (BrE), dreamed
drink	drank	drunk
drive	drove	driven
eat	ate	eaten
feed	fed	fed
feel	felt	felt
fight	fought	fought
find	found	found
fit	fitted, fit (AmE)	fitted, fit (AmE)
flee	fled	fled
fly	flew	flown
forget	forgot	forgotten, forgot (AmE)
forgive	forgave	forgiven
freeze	froze	frozen
get	got	got, gotten (AmE)
give	gave	given
go	went	gone
grow	grew	grown
hang	hung	hung, hanged
have	had	had
hear	heard	heard
hide	hid	hidden, hid
hit	hit	hit
hold	held	held
hurt	hurt	hurt
keep	kept	kept
know	knew	known
lead	led	led
learn	learnt (BrE), learned	learnt (BrE), learned
leave	left	left
lend	lent	lent
let	let	let
lie	lay	lain
light	lit, lighted	lit, lighted
lose	lost	lost
make	made	made
mean	meant	meant
met	met	met
mistake	mistook	mistaken
put	put	put
read	read	read
rid	rid, ridded	rid, ridded
ride	rode	ridden
ring	rang, rung (AmE)	rung
say	said	said
see	saw	seen
sell	sold	sold
send	send	sent
set	set	set
shoot	shot	shot
show	showed	shown
shut	shut	shut
sing	sang, sung (AmE)	sung
sink	sank, sunk (AmE)	sunk
sit	sat	sat
sleep	slept	slept
smell	smelt (BrE), smelled	smelt (BrE), smelled
speak	spoke	spoken
spend	spent	spent
stand	stood	stood
steal	stole	stolen
stick	stuck	stuck
strike	struck	struck
swear	swore	sworn
swim	swam, swum (AmE)	swum
take	took	taken
teach	taught	taught
tear	tore	torn
tell	told	told
think	thought	thought
throw	threw	thrown
understand	understood	understood
upset	upset	upset
wake	woke,waked	woken,waken
wear	wore	worn
win	won	won
write	wrote	written