Regular and Irregular Verbs
Based on how we conjugate verbs in the past simple and the past participle, they can be divided into two types: Regular verbs and Irregular verbs.
What Are Regular and Irregular Verbs?
Based on how a verb is conjugated in the past simple tense and past participle, we can divide verbs into two categories:
- Regular verbs
- Irregular verbs
Regular verbs
Most verbs in the English language are regular verbs, which means that the past simple form and the past participle are created by simply adding '-ed' or '-d' or sometimes '-t', to the end of the verb.
| past simple form | past participle form | |
|---|---|---|
| walk |
walk |
walk |
| call |
call |
call |
| wait |
wait |
wait |
| work |
work |
work |
| live |
live |
live |
| build |
buil |
buil |
Irregular verbs
Irregular verbs do not follow a fixed pattern when turning into the simple past or past participle form.
Their number is limited compared to regular verbs. There are approximately 200 irregular verbs in the English language. The irregular verbs are categorized into four groups:
- Group I: Verbs that have different base, past simple and past participle forms
- Group II: Verbs that have the same past simple and past participle forms
- Group III: Verbs that have the same base and past participle forms
- Group IV: Verbs that have the same base, past simple and past participle forms
'work' is a regular verb
Group I of Irregular Verbs
All three forms of the group I irregular verbs have different forms. Look at the table below to see some examples:
| past form | past participle form | |
|---|---|---|
| be | was/were | been |
| do | did | done |
| eat | ate | eaten |
| go | went | gone |
| see | saw | seen |
Group II of Irregular Verbs
The past and past participles forms of the group II irregular verbs are the same. Look at the table below to see some examples:
| past form | past participle form | |
|---|---|---|
| buy | bought | bought |
| leave | left | left |
| teach | taught | taught |
| find | found | found |
| have | had | had |
Group III of Irregular Verbs
Group III of irregular verbs has the same base form and past participle form. Look at the table to see some examples:
| past form | past participle form | |
|---|---|---|
| become | became | become |
| run | ran | run |
| come | came | come |
Group IV of Irregular Verbs
All three forms of the group IV irregular verbs are the same. Look at the table to see some example:
| past form | past participle form | |
|---|---|---|
| hit | hit | hit |
| cut | cut | cut |
| cost | cost | cost |
| hurt | hurt | hurt |
| let | let | let |
Review
Based on how a verb is conjugated in the past simple tense and past participle, we can divide verbs into two categories.
Regular Verbs
The pronunciation at the end of the verbs can be /t/ /d/ or /ɪd/.
| Add d | Add ed | Add t it is common in British English | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Present | dance | burn | burn |
| Past tense | danced | burned | burnt |
| Past participle | danced | burned | burnt |
Irregular Verbs
There are four groups of irregular verbs.
| description | present | past | past participle |
|---|---|---|---|
| Verbs that their base, past simple and past participle forms are different. | be | was/were | been |
| Verbs that their past simple and past participle forms are the same. | find | found | found |
| Verbs that their base and past participle forms are the same. | come | came | come |
| Verbs that their base, past simple and past participle are the same. | hurt | hurt | hurt |
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