English Club : Learn English : Vocabulary : Irregular Verbs

Irregular Verbs

Irregular verbs are an important feature of English. We use irregular verbs a lot when speaking, less when writing. Of course, the most famous English verb of all, the verb "to be", is irregular.

What is the difference between regular verbs and irregular verbs?

	Base Form	Past Simple	Past Participle
With regular verbs, the rule is simple...
The past simple and past participle always end in -ed:	finish	finished	finished
	stop	stopped	stopped
	work	worked	worked
But with irregular verbs, there is no rule...
Sometimes the verb changes completely:	sing	sang	sung
Sometimes there is "half" a change:	buy	bought	bought
Sometimes there is no change:	cut	cut	cut

One good way to learn irregular verbs is to try sorting them into groups, as above.

If in doubt, a good dictionary can tell you if a verb is regular or irregular.

Here is a list of irregular verbs in English.