How to Use Irregular Verbs

Matt Ellis

Updated on
November 11, 2021GRAMMAR

Irregular verbs are verbs that do not follow the normal patterns for tense and past participle. While most English regular verbs use the ending “-ed” for the past tense and participle forms, irregular verbs each have their own unique tense forms and past participles. 

Irregular verbs are one of the hardest parts of the modern English language because they’re all a little different. Since there’s no formula, English speakers have no choice but to memorize each one, along with their special verb forms. 

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To help you with this, below we list the common irregular verbs and their tense forms, along with a quick explanation of what they are and how they work. 

What are irregular verbs? 

You could say irregular verbs are verbs that “follow their own rules.” Regular verbs follow the standard grammar rules of modern English in adding “-ed” or “-d” to form the past tense and past participle forms. Irregular verbs, however, use completely original words for their different verb forms when they’re the main verb of a sentence. (Just a reminder: The past participle is the form used with the present perfect tense.) 

To show you what we mean, let’s “dance” and “sing!” This pair is a good example to see the differences: “dance” is a regular verb, but “sing” is an irregular verb.  

To conjugate “dance,” there’s no big surprise or trick; you just use the same formula as with most other verbs. To create both the simple past tense and past participle forms, you simply add “-ed,” or in this case only “-d” because the base form ends in e already. 

Base	Simple Past Tense	Past Participle
dance	danced	danced

“Sing,” however, is irregular, so the normal rules don’t work. You can’t use “singed” because that’s an incorrect form for this verb. Instead, “sing” has both a unique past tense and also a unique past participle form. The only way to know how to conjugate “sing” is to memorize its special forms. 

Base	Simple Past Tense	Past Participle
sing	sang	sung

In practice, you end with conjugations like these: 

We sang and danced all night. 

I have sung opera before, but I have never danced to it. 

She prefers music sung by professionals. 

The simple present tense is conjugated the same no matter whether the verb is regular or irregular. This includes adding an “-s” or “-es” for the third-person singular. Be aware that certain exceptions, like the verb “be,” have special present tense forms as well. 

Base	Present Tense	Simple Past Participle	Past Participle
be	am, is, are	was, were	been

Like “be,” quite a few other linking verbs are irregular as well, such as “become” and “feel.” Also, irregular verbs can be either transitive or intransitive verbs and can still be used as imperative verbs.  

Strong vs. weak verbs

Irregular verbs and regular verbs are often confused with strong verbs and weak verbs, although they are very similar. 

Strong verbs are any verb that changes its vowels in the past tense, like how the i in “sing” changes to an a for the past tense. Weak verbs, on the other hand, keep their vowel the same in the past tense, like the a in dance. 

With these rules in mind, we can see that all strong verbs are irregular. The confusion comes with weak verbs, because some weak verbs are irregular, too. One of the most common examples of an irregular weak verb is “sleep”: 

Base	Simple Past Tense	Past Participle
sleep	slept	slept

Although “sleep” has its own special past tense and past participle forms (“slept”), it still keeps e as the main vowel, making it a weak verb. 

Likewise, irregular verbs that don’t change at all, like “bet” or “spread,” are also weak. You can find a full list of irregular verbs that don’t change below. 

List of irregular verbs in English

Want a list of irregular verbs in the English language? Below we list the common irregular verbs to help you study and provide a quick-reference resource in case you forget one later (note that the past tense verbs in the chart below are shown in American English forms; there are some differences in British English). 

Instead of listing the irregular verbs in each of their verb tenses, we only mention the simple past tense and past participle forms, along with the base. Any verb conjugation you do will use one of those three forms.

Please note irregular verbs that take a prefix (e.g., “resell” or “undo”) use the same irregular forms as their base word (e.g., “resold” or “undid”). 

Also, you’ll notice that some irregular verbs don’t change at all—the base, simple past tense, and past participle forms are all the same word. We discuss this type of irregular verb in the next section. 

Base	Simple Past Tense	Past Participle
arise	arose	arisen
awake	awoke	awoken
be	was/were	been
bear	bore	borne
beat	beat	beaten
become	became	become
begin	began	begun
bend	bent	bent
bet	bet	bet
bind	bound	bound
bid	bid	bid
bite	bit	bitten
bleed	bled	bled
blow	blew	blown
break	broke	broken
breed	bred	bred
bring	brought	brought
broadcast	broadcast	broadcast
build	built	built
burst	burst	burst
buy	bought	bought
cast	cast	cast
catch	caught	caught
choose	chose	chosen
cling	clung	clung
come	came	come
cost	cost	cost
creep	crept	crept
cut	cut	cut
deal	dealt	dealt
dig	dug	dug
dive	dove/dived	dived
do	did	done
draw	drew	drawn
dream	dreamed (sometimes “dreamt”)	dreamed (sometimes “dreamt”)
drink	drank	drunk
drive	drove	driven
eat	ate	eaten
fall	fell	fallen
feed	fed	fed
feel	felt	felt
fight	fought	fought
find	found	found
flee	fled	fled
fling	flung	flung
flt	flew	flown
forbid	forbade	forbidden
forget	forgot	forgotten
forgive	forgave	forgiven
freeze	froze	frozen
get	got	got
give	gave	given
go	went	gone
grind	ground	ground
grow	grew	grown
hang	hung (sometimes “hanged”)	hung (sometimes “hanged”)
have	had	had
hear	heard	heard
hide	hid	hidden
hit	hit	hit
hold	held	held
hurt	hurt	hurt
keep	kept	kept
kneel	knelt	knelt
know	knew	known
lay	laid	laid
lead	led	led
leave	left	left
lend	lent	lent
let	let	let
lie (as in “lie down”)	lay	lain
light	lit/lighted	lit/lighted
lose	lost	lost
make	made	made
mean	meant	meant
meet	met	met
mistake	mistook	mistaken
mow	mowed	mown/mowed
overtake	overtook	overtaken
pay	paid	paid
proofread	proofread	proofread
put	put	put
quit	quit	quit
read	read	read
reset	reset	reset
ride	rode	ridden
ring	rang	rung
rise	rose	risen
run	ran	run
say	said	said
see	saw	seen
seek	sought	sought
sell	sold	sold
send	sent	sent
set	set	set
sew	sewed	sewn/sewed
shake	shook	shaken
shave	shaved	shaven
shed	shed	shed
shine	shone	shone
shoot	shot	shot
show	showed	shown
shrink	shrank	shrunk
shut	shut	shut
sing	sang	sung
sink	sank	sunk
sit	sat	sat
slay	slew	slain
sleep	slept	slept
slide	slid	slid
sling	slung	slung
sneak	snuck (sometimes “sneaked“)	snuck (sometimes “sneaked”)
sow	sowed	sown/sowed
speak	spoke	spoken
speed	sped	sped
spend	spent	spent
spill	spilt/spilled	spilt/spilled
spin	spun	spun
spit	spat	spat
split	split	split
spread	spread	spread
spring	sprang	sprung
stand	stood	stood
steal	stole	stolen
stick	stuck	stuck
sting	stung	stung
stink	stank	stunk
strike	struck	struck
string	strung	strung
strive	strove	striven
swear	swore	sworn
sweep	swept	swept
swell	swelled	swollen/swelled
swim	swam	swum
swing	swung	swung
take	took	taken
teach	taught	taught
tear	tore	torn
think	thought	thought
throw	threw	thrown
thrust	thrust	thrust
tread	trod	trodden
understand	understood	understood
upset	upset	upset
wake	woke	woken
wear	wore	worn
weave	wove	worn
weave	wove	woven
weep	wept	wept
wet	wet/wetted	wet/wetted
win	won	won
wind	wound	wound
wring	wrung	wrung
write	wrote	written

Common irregular verbs that don’t change 

Most verbs, both regular and irregular, have different verb forms for different tenses. We add letters or change the spelling to aid communication; it helps the listener or reader understand whether you’re talking about the present, past, or future. 

However, certain verbs don’t change verb forms at all. They use the same word and same spelling for the present, past, and past participle forms. Because these words don’t follow the normal rules, they’re also considered irregular. 

You can find these words in the chart above, but to speed up your search we’ve also included them in the list below: 

• bet
• bid
• broadcast
• burst
• cast
• cost
• cut
• hit
• hurt
• let
• proofread (see “read”)
• put
• read (past and past participle are spelled the same but pronounced differently)
• reset
• set
• shed
• shut
• split
• spread
• thrust
• upset
• wet

Ensure you use the proper verb forms

Getting irregular verb forms right in your writing can be tricky unless you’ve memorized them all. That’s where Grammarly comes in. Acting as your built-in editor, Grammarly flags verb tense mistakes and other grammatical issues in your writing and provides suggestions on how to correct them—and so much more. From clarity to tone consistency, Grammarly’s real-time feedback helps make your writing stronger and more polished.