Irregular Verbs

Some verbs form their past tense and past participle by a change in the main vowel of the present tense. These verbs are called irregular verbs or strong verbs.

Some irregular verbs form the past participle with the addition of –n, -en or –ne. Others form the past participle without any such addition.

Here is a list of the more common irregular verbs.

Present / past / past participle

Arise / arose / arisen

Awake / awoke / awoken

Beat / beat / beaten

Become / became / become

Begin / began / begun

Bend / bent / bent

Bind / bound / bound

Bite / bit / bitten

Bleed / bled / bled

Blow / blew / blown

Break / broke / broken

Bring / brought / brought

Build / built / built

Buy / bought / bought

Catch / caught / caught

Choose / chose / chosen

Come / came / come

Cost / cost / cost

Cut / cut / cut

Deal / dealt / dealt

Dig / dug / dug

Do / did / done

Draw / drew / drawn

Drink / drank / drunk

Drive / drove / driven

Eat / ate / eaten

Fall / fell / fallen

Feed / fed / fed

Feel / felt / felt

Fight / fought / fought

Find / found / found

Fly / flew / flown

Forget / forgot / forgotten

Freeze / froze / frozen

Get / got / got

Give / gave / given

Go / went / gone

Grow / grew / grown

Hang / hung / hung

Have / had / had

Hear / heard / heard

Hide / hid / hidden

Hit / hit / hit

Hold / held / held

Hurt / hurt / hurt

Keep / kept / kept

Know / knew / known

Lay / laid / laid

Lead / led / led

Leave / left / left

Lend / lent / lent

Let / let / let

Lie / lay / lain

Lose / lost / lost

Make / made / made

Mean / meant / meant

Meet / met / met

Pay / paid / paid

Put / put / put

Read / read / read

Ring / rang / rung

Rise / rose / risen

Run / ran / run

See / saw / seen

Sell / sold / sold

Shoot / shot / shot

Show / showed / shown

Sing / sang / sung

Sit / sat / sat

Speak / spoke / spoken

Spend / spent / spent

Steal / stole / stolen

Take / took / taken

Throw / threw / thrown

Wear / wore / worn

Write / wrote / written

Notes

In American English, the verbs burn, dream, lean, learn, smell, spell, spill and spoil are all regular. That means they have their past and past participle forms ending in –ed.

Present / past / past participle

Burn / burned / burned

Dream / dreamed / dreamed

Lean / leaned / leaned

Learn / learned / learned

Smell / smelled / smelled

Spell / spelled / spelled

In British English, these verbs are irregular and have past and past participle forms ending in –t.

Burn / burnt / burnt

Dream / dreamt / dreamt

Lean / leant/ leant

Learn / learnt / learnt

Smell / smelt / smelt

Spill / spilt / spilt

Manjusha Nambiar

Hi, I am Manjusha. This is my blog where I give English grammar lessons and worksheets.

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