LoginRegular and Irregular Verbs For Intermediate learners
Understand the rules and usage of regular and irregular verbs with examples such as 'talk' – 'talked' and 'eat' – 'ate'. Exercises help reinforce your understanding.
What Are Regular and Irregular Verbs?
There are different patterns when we conjugate verbs in English. Based on how they are conjugated in the simple past and past participle tenses, we have two groups of verbs as listed below:
- Regular Verbs
- Irregular Verbs
Now, let us examine how each category is conjugated and how they are used in statements.
Regular Verbs
Most verbs in English are regular which means that they get an '-ed' or '-d' at their end when they are conjugated in both simple past and past participle tenses. Pay close attention to the table below:
| Simple Past Form | Past Participle Form | |
|---|---|---|
| Talk |
Talk |
Talk |
| Listen |
Listen |
Listen |
| Jog |
Jogg |
Jogg |
| Look |
Look |
Look |
| Perform |
Perform |
Perform |
| Walk |
Walk |
Walk |
| Dance |
Danc |
Danc |
| Live |
Live |
Live |
Now, carefully study the examples below:
She talk
They danc
Tip!
It is useful to know that some verbs get a '-t' instead of an '-ed' at their end and this is common in British English. Look at the following example:
He buil
As you can see, the simple past and past participle forms of 'build' is 'built'.
Irregular Verbs
Irregular Verbs, contradictory to regular ones, do not have a specific, fixed pattern and they are categorized into four groups. Let us examine two groups of these verbs:
- Group I: Verbs that their base, simple past and past participle forms are different.
- Group II: Verbs that their simple past and past participle forms are the same.
Let us study each category carefully:
Group I of Irregular Verbs
In this group, every tense has its own form. Look at some verbs and their conjugated forms in the table below:
| Simple Past Form | Past Participle Form | |
|---|---|---|
| Eat | Ate | Eaten |
| See | Saw | Seen |
| Be | Was\Were | Been |
| Do | Did | Done |
| Drink | Drank | Drunk |
| Fall | Fell | Fallen |
| Write | Wrote | Written |
Now, pay attention to the examples below:
I
She had
Group II of Irregular Verbs
The verbs in this category have the same forms for the simple past and past participle tenses. Study the following table carefully:
| Simple Past Form | Past Participle Form | |
|---|---|---|
| Buy | Bought | Bought |
| Say | Said | Said |
| Teach | Taught | Taught |
| Leave | Left | Left |
| Seek | Sought | Sought |
Now let us look at some examples below:
She
I
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