Home Grammar Word classes Verbs What's The Difference Between Regular And Irregular Verbs?

What's The Difference Between Regular And Irregular Verbs?

In the context of verbs, we use the term inflection to talk about the process of changing a verb form to show tense, mood, number (i.e. singular or plural), and person (i.e. first person, second person, or third person). This section deals with inflecting verbs to show tenses and participles, and is divided into two main sections:

Regular verbs

Irregular verbs

Regular verbs

Many English verbs are regular, which means that they form their different tenses according to an established pattern. Such verbs work like this:

Verb	3rd person singular present tense	3rd person singular past tense	past participle	present participle
laugh	he/she laughs	he/she laughed	laughed	laughing
love	he/she loves	he/she loved	loved	loving
boo	he/she boos	he/she booed	booed	booing

Present tense formation

In the present simple tense, the basic form of a regular verb only changes in the 3^rd person singular, as follows:

Most verbs just add -s to the basic form (e.g. take/takes, seem/seems, look/looks).

Verbs that end with a vowel other than e add -es (e.g. go/goes, veto/vetoes, do/does).

Verbs that end with -s, -z, -ch, -sh, and -x add -es (e.g. kiss/kisses, fizz/fizzes, punch/punches, wash/washes, mix/mixes).

If the verb ends in a consonant plus -y, change the y to an i before adding -es (e.g. hurry/hurries, clarify/clarifies). But if the verb ends in a vowel plus -y, just add -s (e.g. play/plays, enjoy/enjoys).

Past tense formation

Forming the past simple tense of regular verbs is mostly straightforward, and you use the same form for the first, second, and third persons, singular and plural:

If the basic form of the verb ends in a consonant or a vowel other than e, add the letters -ed to the end (e.g. seem/seemed, laugh/laughed, look/looked).

For verbs that end in -e, add -d (e.g. love/loved, recede/receded, hope/hoped).

If the verb ends in a consonant plus -y, change the y to an i before adding -ed (e.g. hurry/hurried, clarify/clarified). But if the verb ends in a vowel plus -y, just add -ed (e.g. play/played, enjoy/enjoyed).

For more detail, see Verb tenses: adding-ed-and-ing.

Forming participles

To form the past participle of regular verbs, follow the same rules as for the past simple tense above.

To make the present participle of regular verbs:

If the basic form of the verb ends in a consonant or a vowel other than e, add the ending -ing (e.g. laugh/laughing, boo/booing).

If the verb ends in e, drop the e before adding -ing (e.g. love/loving, hope/hoping).

If the basic form ends in y just add -ing (e.g. hurry/hurrying, clarify/clarifying).

For more detail, see Verb tenses: adding-ed-and-ing.

Irregular verbs

There are many irregular verbs that don’t follow the normal rules. Here are the forms of some of the most common irregular verbs:

Verb	3^rd person singular present tense	3^rd person singular past tense	past participle	present participle
be	is	was	been	being
begin	begins	began	begun	beginning
bite	bites	bit	bitten	biting
break	breaks	broke	broken	breaking
buy	buys	bought	bought	buying
choose	chooses	chose	chosen	choosing
come	comes	came	come	coming
dig	digs	dug	dug	digging
do	does	did	done	doing
drink	drinks	drank	drunk	drinking
eat	eats	ate	eaten	eating
fall	falls	fell	fallen	falling
feel	feels	felt	felt	feeling
find	finds	found	found	finding
get	gets	got	got	getting
go	goes	went	gone	going
grow	grows	grew	grown	growing
have	has	had	had	having
hide	hides	hid	hidden	hiding
keep	keeps	kept	kept	keeping
know	knows	knew	known	knowing
lay	lays	laid	laid	laying
lead	leads	led	led	leading
leave	leaves	left	left	leaving
lie	lies	lay	lain	lying
lose	loses	lost	lost	losing
make	makes	made	made	making
meet	meets	met	met	meeting
put	puts	put	put	putting
read /ri:d/	reads	read /red/	read /red/	reading
ride	rides	rode	ridden	riding
ring	rings	rang	rung	ringing
rise	rises	rose	risen	rising
run	runs	ran	run	running
say	says	said	said	saying
see	sees	saw	seen	seeing
sell	sells	sold	sold	selling
set	sets	set	set	setting
sing	sings	sang	sung	singing
sit	sits	sat	sat	sitting
stand	stands	stood	stood	standing
stick	sticks	stuck	stuck	sticking
take	takes	took	taken	taking
teach	teaches	taught	taught	teaching
think	thinks	thought	thought	thinking
wake	wakes	woke	woken	waking

Note that sometimes the spelling doesn’t change but the pronunciation does (e.g. read). There are many more irregular verbs in English than those listed here. If you aren’t sure how a verb behaves, it’s best to look it up. All irregular verb forms are given in full at the main dictionary entry.