Irregular Verbs

Read the sentences: 

1. Two boys slid on a flume. 
2. A girl sat on a red lifebuoy. 
3. Kids played in a pool. 
4. Two boys jumped into the pool. 

Did you observe the difference in forms each verb takes when they are in the past tense? 

The present tense of the verb in sentence 1 is slide. When the past tense was formed, it came along with a slight change in the form of the verb. This is also the case with the verb in sentence 2. 

But in sentences 3 and 4, the past tense was formed with a simple addition of the suffix -ed, i.e.,jump and play changed their tense by adding the suffix -ed.  

Now, have you ever thought about why different verbs take their past tense in different ways? In other words, some verbs take their past tense simply by adding the suffix -ed, while the others slightly or entirely change their form to accommodate the past tense? 

Regular verbs: 

Read the sentence: 

We played football. 

In the sentence, the present tense of the verb is play. Its past and participle are also formed by the addition of the suffix -ed. Since the past tense and the past participle are formed by adding the suffix –ed, we can call it a regular verb. 

As simple as that! 

Now, let us define a regular verb: 

The words that form their past tense and past participles by adding the suffix -ed are regular verbs. 

Examples: 

• We walked through the streets. 
• Amy painted an amazing portrait. 
• The audience laughed at the comic’s jokes. 

Irregular verbs: 

Read the sentence: 

Cooper brought his friend along with him. 

In the given sentence, the verb brought is in its past tense. This past tense is formed by a change in its initial form, which was bring. Therefore, we can say that it is an irregular verb. 

Now, let us define an irregular verb: 

Irregular verbs are the ones that form their past tense and past participles by either slightly or entirely changing their form. They are formed in a different way from adding the suffix -ed. 

Irregular verbs are of three types: 

1. The first one is the one in which all the three forms, i.e., the past tense, the present tense and the past participle forms, are the same, like; 

• Burst- burst- burst 
• Put- put- put 
• Read- read-read  
• Cut- cut- cut 
• Hit- hit- hit 
• Hurt- hurt- hurt 

2. The second one is the one in which two of the three forms are the same, like; 

• Become- became- become 
• Catch- caught- caught 
• Feed- fed- fed 
• Hear- heard- heard 
• Leave- left- left 
• Stick- stuck- stuck 

3. The last one is the one in which all three forms are different, like; 

• Begin- began- begun 
• Blow- blew- blown 
• Choose- chose- chosen 
• Do- did- done 
• Grow- grew- grown 
• Show- showed- shown