Regular 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.

"Regular and Irregular Verbs" in English Grammar

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

Talked

Talked

Listen

Listened

Listened

Jog

Jogged

Jogged

Look

Looked

Looked

Perform

Performed

Performed

Walk

Walked

Walked

Dance

Danced

Danced

Live

Lived

Lived

Now, carefully study the examples below:

Example

She talked to Ms. Howard yesterday.

They danced all night.

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:

Example

He built this house ten years ago.

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:

Example

I saw a black bird on my way home.

She had been there for 3 months.

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:

Example

She bought a new phone yesterday.

I said get out of my room now!

Comments

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Dec 2023
amazing!
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Jul 2023
great, thanks
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Mar 2023
Great one lecture!
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