Regular and Irregular Verbs | English Grammar

Verbs can be of two types: regular and irregular verb. 

#Regular verbs form their past tense and past participle by adding ed.

Base Form	Past Tense	Past Participle
walk	walked	walked
laugh	laughed	laughed
paint	painted	painted

# Irregular verbs form their past tense and past participle in a different way from adding ed.

We distinguish three types of irregular verbs:

(1) Verbs in which all three forms are the same (e.g. cut - cut - cut) 

(2) Verbs in which two of the three forms are the same (e.g. sit - sat - sat) 

(3) Verbs in which all three forms are different (e.g. ring - rang - rung) 

1) All three forms are the same.

Base Form	Past Tense	Past Participle
bet	bet	bet
burst	burst	burst
cost	cost	cost
cut	cut	cut
hit	hit	hit
hurt	hurt	hurt
let	let	let
put	put	put
read (pronounced “red”)	read (“red”)	read (“red”)
set	set	set
shut	shut	shut
split	split	split
spread	spread	spread

2)  Two of the forms are the same.

Base Form	Past Tense	Past Participle
beat	beat	beaten
become	became	become
bend	bent	bent
bleed	bled	bled
breed	bred	bred
bring	brought	brought
build	built	built
burn	burnt/burned	burnt/burned
buy	bought	bought
catch	caught	caught
come	came	come
creep	crept	crept
deal	dealt	dealt
dig	dug	dug
dream	dreamt/dreamed	dreamt/dreamed
feed	fed	fed
feel	felt	felt
fight	fought	fought
find	found	found
get	got	got
hang	hung	hung
have	had	had
hear	heard	heard
hold	held	held
lay	laid	laid
lead	led	led
lean	leant/leaned	leant/leaned
learn	learnt/learned	learnt/learned
leap	leapt/leaped	leapt/leaped
leave	left	left
lend	lent	lent
light	lit	lit
lose	lost	lost
make	made	made
mean	meant	meant
meet	met	met
pay	paid	paid
run	ran	run
say	said	said
sell	sold	sold
send	sent	sent
shine	shone	shone
shoot	shot	shot
sit	sat	sat
sleep	slept	slept
smell	smelt/smelled	smelt/smelled
speed	sped	sped
spell	spelt/spelled	spelt/spelled
spend	spent	spent
spill	spilt/spilled	spilt/spilled
spit	spat	spat
spoil	spoilt/spoiled	spoilt/spoiled
stand	stood	stood
stick	stuck	stuck
sting	stung	stung
strike	struck	struck
sweep	swept	swept
swing	swung	swung
teach	taught	taught
tell	told	told
think	thought	thought
understand	understood	understood
win	won	won
wind	wound	wound

3)  All three forms are different.

Base Form	Past Tense	Past Participle
be	was/were	been
begin	began	begun
bite	bit	bitten
blow	blew	blown
break	broke	broken
choose	chose	chosen
do	did	done
draw	drew	drawn
drink	drank	drunk
drive	drove	driven
eat	ate	eaten
fall	fell	fallen
fly	flew	flown
forbid	forbade	forbidden
forget	forgot	forgotten
forgive	forgave	forgiven
freeze	froze	frozen
give	gave	given
go	went	gone
grow	grew	grown
hide	hid	hidden
know	knew	known
lie (recline)	lay	lain
mistake	mistook	mistaken
ride	rode	ridden
ring	rang	rung
rise	rose	risen
see	saw	seen
sew	sewed	sewn/sewed
shake	shook	shaken
show	showed	shown
shrink	shrank	shrunk
sing	sang	sung
sink	sank	sunk
speak	spoke	spoken
spring	sprang	sprung
steal	stole	stolen
stink	stank	stunk
swear	swore	sworn
swim	swam	swum
take	took	taken
tear	tore	torn
throw	threw	thrown
wake	woke	woken
wear	wore	worn
write	wrote	written

Work Cited

English Grammar and Composition by Wren & Martin