Can you give examples of irregular verbs?

Answer 1

Many English verbs are irregular. To understand what is irregular, one must first establish what is regular.

For all 16 verbal conjugations, only four forms of the verb are needed for a regular verb.

For example, To Open.

I open.

He opens.

You are opening.

We opened.

This is the regular format, verb -ed for the past simple and past participle (which is used with all auxiliary verbs).

So irregular verbs deviate from this pattern.

All irregular verbs (with the exception of To Be and To Have) are irregular in the past simple or the past participle (which is often just the past simple).

Some change their ending.

To Deal > I Dealt

To Sweep > They Swept

To Have > You Had

Some change their vowel.

To Swim > I Swam > We Have Swum

To Sing > They Sang > You Have Sung

To Drink > He Drank > She Has Drunk

Due to Germanic roots, many irregular past participles end with 'en,' which is the infinitive of almost all German verbs.

To Speak > I Spoke > They Have Spoken

To Fall > He Fell > They Have Fallen

To Ride > She Rode > You Have Ridden

Some verbs remain the same in all forms.

To Cut > He Cut > I Have Cut

To Shut > She Shut > They Have Shut

To Cast > It Cast > You Have Cast

Some verbs use the 'ught' with the silent 'gh.'

To Teach > We Taught

To Catch > It Caught

To Buy > I Bought

Some verbs have multiple past simple conjugations.

To Burn > I Burned / I Burnt

To Dream > She Dreamed / She Dreamt

To Kneel > They Kneeled / They Knelt

Often these verbs are simple irregulars that have become more popularly regularized in American English, but both forms are correct in any English speaking country.

Then of course, some irregular verbs don't seem to fall into any category.

To Eat > You Ate > He Has Eaten

To Show > She Showed > I Have Shown

To Run > We Ran > They Have Run

SHORT ANSWERrun / eat / cut / feel / understand / keep / lose / throw, are examples of irregular verbs

as are:

be / think / win / wear