What is the difference between regular verbs and irregular verbs?

All verbs in English can be classified as either regular or irregular, depending on how they are conjugated into the past simple and past participle forms.

Quick Tip

If you are unfamiliar with the past simple or past participle forms of a verb try the following.

To produce the past simple form, add the word “yesterday” to a simple sentence. To figure out the past simple form of study, look at the example below.

I studied yesterday.

To figure out the past participle form, complete the question “Have you ever..?” with a verb. That verb will be in the past participle form. For example to determine the past participle of fly, look at the following question:

Have you ever flown in a helicopter?

Regular Verbs

A regular verb ends in ed in its past tense and past participle forms. It follows a predictable pattern. Usually, this is achieved by simply adding ed to the base form of the verb. For example adding ed to the verb work becomes worked. However there are some general spelling rules to consider. Let’s look at some examples.

Peter helped the teacher yesterday.

We form the past simple and the past participle of help by adding ed (helped).

Base Form	Past Simple	Past Participle
help	helped	helped

I liked the movie.

We only need to add a d to form the past simple and past participle forms of like because the base form of the verb already ends in e (liked).

Base Form	Past Simple	Past Participle
like	liked	liked

We have tried everything.

The base form of tried is try. Since try ends in a consonant followed by a y, we need to change the y to an i before adding ed. Just drop the y and add ied (tried).

Base Form	Past Simple	Past Participle
try	tried	tried

The rabbit hopped away.

The past simple and past participle forms of hop is hopped. Why is there an extra p? We need to double the final consonant before adding ed when the base form of the verb ends in consonant-vowel-consonant pattern (hopped).

Base Form	Past Simple	Past Participle
hop	hopped	hopped

Irregular Verbs

Irregular verbs do not follow a predictable pattern when conjugating them into the past simple and past participle forms. Although there are some similarities in how some irregular verbs are conjugated, all forms need to be memorized for each verb.

Let’s look at some example sentences with irregular verbs.

We saw all of the movies yesterday.
We have seen all of the latest movies.

Base Form	Past Simple	Past Participle
see	saw	seen

The cat ate at 6 o’clock.
The cat has already eaten.

Base Form	Past Simple	Past Participle
eat	ate	eaten

Peter read a book last night.
He has read all of the books in his library.

Base Form	Past Simple	Past Participle
read	read (pronounced ‘red’)	read (pronounced ‘red’)

Below are a few more examples of some common irregular verbs.

Base Form	Past Simple	Past Participle
be	was/were	been
begin	began	begun
come	came	come
cut	cut	cut
do	did	done
drive	drove	driven
eat	ate	eaten
fight	fought	fought
fly	flew	flown
go	went	gone
have	had	had
know	knew	known
make	made	made
read	read (pronounced ‘red’)	read (pronounced ‘red’)
say	said	said
see	saw	seen
show	showed	shown
take	took	taken
wear	wore	worn
write	write	written

Learn more about different types of verbs

Learning about different kinds of verbs can enhance your understanding of English.

Let us know what you think!

Need further clarification? Do you have any suggestions on how to improve our examples or explanations? We look forward to seeing your comments below.