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.