Verb tenses: irregular verbs
Questions
Overview
An irregular verb is one that does not follow a regular pattern of spelling when changing from present to past tense. These verbs are important when learning the past simple tense.
In some cases the past form of the irregular verb is the same as the past participle.
Examples:
| Present | Past | Past Participle |
|---|---|---|
| buy | bought | bought |
| make | made | made |
| say | said | said |
In other cases the past form of the irregular verb is different to the past participle.
Examples:
| Present | Past | Past Participle |
|---|---|---|
| fly | flew | flown |
| see | saw | seen |
| take | took | taken |
While we have many regular verbs in English a lot of the more common ones are irregular. There is no rule or pattern to the irregularity and we just need to learn them.
Further learning
| Description | Author | Language | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Probably the best Irregular Verbs rap! | ESL Teacher |  |
|
| The difference between 'lie' and 'lay' when talking about position. | BBC Learning |  |