Tips for Learning irregular verbs

Verbs with all 3 forms identical

Let’s begin with the easiest group of irregular verbs. These verbs are the same in the present, the past, and the past participle. They include: bet, burst, cast, cost, cut, fit,* hit, hurt, let, put, quit, set, shut, split, spread.

* When talking about clothes being the correct size.

Verbs with identical Present and Past Participle

These verbs are the same in the present and the past participle. Only the past form is different:

Present	Past	Past Participle
come	came	come
become	became	become
run	ran	run

Verbs with –N in the Past Participle

These verbs are a little more complicated, as they have –n in the past participle form.

There are a few different groups of verbs:

With “o” in the past and past participle

Present	Past	Past Participle
break	broke	broken
choose	chose	chosen
forget	forgot	forgotten
freeze	froze	frozen
get	got	gotten
speak	spoke	spoken
steal	stole	stolen
tear	tore	torn
wake	woke	woken
wear	wore	worn

With “o” in the past only

Present	Past	Past Participle
drive	drove	driven
ride	rode	ridden
rise	rose	risen
write	wrote	written

Past with -ew, past participle with -own

Present	Past	Past Participle
blow	blew	blown
fly	flew	flown
grow	grew	grown
know	knew	known
throw	threw	thrown

Other irregular verbs with past participle ending in –n

Present	Past	Past Participle
bite	bit	bitten
hide	hid	hidden
eat	ate	eaten
fall	fell	fallen
forbid	forbade	forbidden
forgive	forgave	forgiven
give	gave	given
see	saw	seen
shake	shook	shaken
take	took	taken

Verbs with vowel changes

Long “e” changes to short “e”

Present	Past	Past Participle
keep	kept	kept
sleep	slept	slept
feel	felt	felt
bleed	bled	bled
feed	fed	fed
meet	met	met
lead	led	led

“ea” is pronounced differently

Present	Past	Past Participle
deal	dealt	dealt
dream	dreamt	dreamt
mean	meant	meant
read	read	read
hear	heard	heard

Long “i” changes to “ou”

Present	Past	Past Participle
bind	bound	bound
find	found	found
grind	ground	ground
wind	wound	wound

Short “i” changes to “u”

Present	Past	Past Participle
dig	dug	dug
stick	stuck	stuck
spin	spun	spun
sting	stung	stung
swing	swung	swung

-ell changes to -old

Present	Past	Past Participle
sell	sold	sold
tell	told	told

-ought and –aught endings

Present	Past	Past Participle
bring	brought	brought
buy	bought	bought
catch	caught	caught
fight	fought	fought
seek	sought	sought
teach	taught	taught
think	thought	thought

Verbs with 3 different vowels!

Are you ready for a challenge? These irregular verbs have different vowels in each form. Fortunately, they do follow a pattern.

Vowel changes from “i” to “a” to “u”

Present	Past	Past Participle
begin	began	begun
drink	drank	drunk
ring	rang	rung
shrink	shrank	shrunk
sing	sang	sung
sink	sank	sunk
spring	sprang	sprung
swim	swam	swum

The REALLY Irregular Verbs

Well, these are the completely irregular verbs – the ones that don’t fit into any of the categories above! They are also some of the most commonly used verbs in the English language, so make sure to memorize them in all their crazy irregular forms!

Present	Past	Past Participle
be	was / were	been
do	did	done
go	went	gone
have	had	had
make	made	made