Irregular and Regular Verbs

Irregular and regular verbs present tense 3rd person singular Simple Past Past Participle Present Participle

Verbs fall into two categories: regular and irregular. The difference between them is the way their endings change when they become past tense. Regular verbs in the past tense often end with –ed.

In the sentence, “He looks in the mirror,” the main verb look is a regular verb. The past tense of look is looked. In the past tense, the sentence would read “He looked in the mirror.”

The word buy, is an example of an irregular verb. It undergoes irregular spelling changes in its past tense. It doesn’t end with -ed. The past tense of buy is bought. You could say “He buys a new car every year,” in the present tense. The past tense would be “He bought a new car yesterday.”

In the present simple tense, the basic form of a regular verb only changes in the 3rd person singular (he/she/it), as follows:

Most verbs just add -s to the basic form (allow/allows, come/comes, lead/leads).

Verbs that end with a vowel other than e add -es (do/does go/goes, veto/vetoes,).

Verbs that end with -s, -z, -ch, -sh, and -x add -es (kiss/kisses, fizz/fizzes, punch/punches, wash/washes, mix/mixes).

For a list of these verbs3rd person singular present tense, simple past, past participle and present participle click here

If the verb ends in a consonant plus –y, change the y to an i before adding –es (hurry/hurries, clarify/clarifies). But if the verb ends in a vowel plus –y, just add –s (e.g. play/plays, enjoy/enjoys).

Not all irregular verbs undergo a change in spelling in the past tense. For example, the verb cut stays the same in all tenses.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regular_and_irregular_verbs


There are many irregular verbs that don’t follow the normal rules. Here are the forms of some of the most common irregular verbs:

Verb

3rd person singular

3rd person singular

past participle

present participle

present tense

past tense

be

is

was

been

being

begin

begins

began

begun

beginning

bite

bites

bit

bitten

biting

break

breaks

broke

broken

breaking

buy

buys

bought

bought

buying

choose

chooses

chose

chosen

choosing

come

comes

came

come

coming

dig

digs

dug

dug

digging

do

does

did

done

doing

drink

drinks

drank

drunk

drinking

eat

eats

ate

eaten

eating

fall

falls

fell

fallen

falling

feel

feels

felt

felt

feeling

find

finds

found

found

finding

get

gets

got

got

getting

go

goes

went

gone

going

grow

grows

grew

grown

growing

have

has

had

had

having

hide

hides

hid

hidden

hiding

keep

keeps

kept

kept

keeping

know

knows

knew

known

knowing

lay

lays

laid

laid

laying

lead

leads

led

led

leading

leave

leaves

left

left

leaving

lie

lies

lay

lain

lying

lose

loses

lost

lost

losing

make

makes

made

made

making

meet

meets

met

met

meeting

put

puts

put

put

putting

read 

reads

read 

read 

reading

ride

rides

rode

ridden

riding

ring

rings

rang

rung

ringing

rise

rises

rose

risen

rising

run

runs

ran

run

running

say

says

said

said

saying

see

sees

saw

seen

seeing

sell

sells

sold

sold

selling

set

sets

set

set

setting

sing

sings

sang

sung

singing

sit

sits

sat

sat

sitting

stand

stands

stood

stood

standing

stick

sticks

stuck

stuck

sticking

take

takes

took

taken

taking

teach

teaches

taught

taught

teaching

think

thinks

thought

thought

thinking

wake

wakes

woke

woken

waking

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