Verbs: Types, Tenses, and Moods

Irregular Verbs
Definition: You have learnt about the regular past forms, which always end in -
ed. Irregular verbs don't follow this pattern. Most of the time, verbs are irregular
only in their past tense and past participle forms, but there are a handful of verbs that
have one or more irregular present tense forms. This lesson is going to cover the
irregular past forms only.
Note:
Even if a verb is irregular, the present participle is still formed by adding -ing to
the end of the base—no exceptions. Yes, you read that correctly: there
are no irregular present participles in the English language. Sometimes you
may have to tweak the spelling a little, but the ending will always be -ing.

Irregular Past Tense and Past Participles

Here are a few basics you'll want to remember about the irregular past tense and past
participle forms.

 They all have one important characteristic in common: they almost never end
in -ed. Some examples are ate, fought, swam, and given.
 It's very common for a vowel (or pair of vowels) to be different from the base
form. Began (base form, begin) and froze (base form, freeze) are a two good
examples.
 Most irregular verbs follow a specific pattern. You'll learn more about this
concept later in this lesson.
Let's take a closer look at how the irregular past tense and past participles are
formed.

Past Tense
With the irregular past tense, it is common for a vowel in the middle of the verb to
change instead of the verb's ending. The verb drive, for example, changes
to drove in the past tense.
Other verbs require you to change a vowel and add a new ending. Eat, for example,
turns into ate in the past tense.
One of the most common irregular past tense endings is -t (sweep → swept).
Sometimes you'll add -d (sell → sold) or -ght (catch → caught) instead.
Often, when the base ends in -ck, -e, -g, -ght, or -n, the past tense will keep that final
letter or set of letters.
stick → stuck
drive → drove
ring → rang
fight → fought
run → ran
Past Participles
Just like the irregular past tense, irregular past participles can be formed by changing
a vowel, adding a new ending, or doing both. However, the vowel or ending is often
(but not always) different from the past tense form. For example, many irregular past
participles require you to add an -en, -n, or -ne ending (drive → driven).
Many irregular past participles end in -en, but, similarly to the past tense, they can
also end in -t, -ck, -d, -e, -g, or -ght.
In the table below you'll find several examples of how the irregular past tense and
past participles are formed. Pay special attention to the vowel changes and different
endings.

Base Regular Irregular Irregular

Present Participle Past Past Participle

drive driving drove driven

begin beginning began begun

sleep* sleeping slept slept

run running ran run

freeze* freezing froze frozen

eat* eating ate eaten

*For some verbs, such as sleep, freeze, and eat, a pair of vowels changes instead of
just a single vowel.
Irregular Verb Patterns
Now that you have an idea of how to form the irregular past tense and irregular past
participles, let's take a look at some patterns that an irregular verb may follow.

Common Patterns
 Sometimes the past tense and past participle are the same. All the verbs
in this category have at least one of the following characteristics:
o The most common past tense and past participle endings you will add to
these verbs are -t, -ght, and -
d (sweep/swept/swept; catch/caught/caught; sell/sold/sold).
o You will never add an -en, -n, or -ne ending to these verbs. The only time
the past forms end in -n or -ne is when that ending is already part of the
base form (shine/shone/shone).
o Sometimes the base, past, and past participle endings are all the same.
This happens most often when the base ends in -ck, -g, -ght, or -ne.
You'll want to keep these characteristics in mind as you study irregular verbs, but don't
worry about memorizing them all. Use the table below to help you start recognizing all
the patterns.

Base Past Past Participle

sweep swept swept

catch caught caught

sell sold sold

shine shone shone

swing swung swung

fight fought fought

stick stuck stuck


 It is common to form the past participle by adding -en, -n, or -ne to the end of
the base or past tense form.

Base Past Past Participle

eat ate eaten

give gave given

do did done

freeze froze frozen

 For some verbs, the base, past tense, and past participle are all the same. The
base form of these verbs almost always ends in -t (a couple of them end in -d, but
that's very unusual).

Base Past Past Participle

put put put

set set set

 Keep in mind that this pattern does not apply to all verbs ending in the letter -t—there
are quite a few, such as connect, visit, and lift, that are regular verbs. Also, verbs with a
base form ending in -ght never follow this pattern.
 Sometimes, the final vowel changes from i in the base to a in the past, and
then to u in the past participle.

Base Past Past Participle

begin began begun

ring rang rung

Rare Patterns and Stand-Alone Irregulars
 With the verbs run, come, become, and overcome, the base and
past participle are the same. These are the only four verbs that follow
this pattern, so keep an eye out for them—people often make the mistake
of thinking that the past tense and past participle forms are the same.

Base Past Past Participle

run ran run

come came come

 The base, past tense, and past participle are all completely
different. This doesn't happen very often. The verb fly is a good a
example.

Base Past Past Participle

fly flew flown

 With the verb beat - and only the verb beat - the base and the
past tense are the same, but the past participle is different.

Base Past Past Participle

beat beat beaten

 Keep in mind that any other verb that has the same base and past tense
will also have the same exact past participle (for example, put/put/put).
Note:
Knowing these patterns will help you recognize the different verb forms,
but it's not the best way to memorize them. Most people learn the
irregular verb forms by hearing, reading, and practicing them or by being
corrected at home or in school.
Present Tense: Irregular Third Person Singular
Verbs that are irregular in the present tense are almost always irregular only in
the third person singular form (he, she, it). There are very few verbs that fall
into this category; they are to have, to do, and to go. These verbs also have an
irregular past tense and past participle.

Regular Present Irregular Present Regular Irregular Irregular Past

(third person singular Present Past Participle
only) Participle (all forms) (all forms)

I/you/we/they hav he/she/it has (not haves) having had had

e

I/you/we/they do he/she/it does (not dos) doing did done

I/you/we/they go he/she/it goes (not gos) going went gone

Hint:
There are certain verbs that have do, go, or have as their root.1 These
verbs will have the same irregular forms as the root verb.
The verb forgo, which has the root go, has an irregular past tense form
and past participle (forwent, forgone).
The verb undo, which has the root do, is irregular in the third person
singular form of the present tense and has an irregular past tense and
past participle (undoes, undid, undone).

The Verb To Be
The verb to be is the most irregular verb in the English language. It is irregular
in all forms of the present and past tenses, and it has an irregular past
participle.

Present Tense Present Participle Past Tense Past Participle

I am being I/he/she/it was been

you/we/they are you/we/they were
he/she/it is
Try it out:
Fill in each column with the correct form of the given verb. Then check your
work. Practice the ones you miss.

Regular Irregular Irregular

Base Present Past Past
Participle Tense Participle

seek

swing

choose

get

drink

swim

bring

ride

begin

drive

know

write

sink

burst

cost

become