Irregular verbs - formation
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.
In the following table, we look at the main difference between regular verbs and irregular verbs:
| base form | past | past participle | |
|---|---|---|---|
| With regular verbs, the rule is easy... 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.