Irregular verbs in English: the full list by pattern
Irregular verbs are the verbs that refuse to follow the regular -ed pattern. Regular verbs are easy: work, worked, worked. Irregular verbs each have to be learned, because their past forms change in ways you cannot predict from the spelling. The good news is that there are only about a hundred common ones, they fall into a handful of patterns, and the most frequent verbs in English, the ones you meet every day, are precisely the ones worth learning first.
The three forms
Every verb has three principal parts. For regular verbs the last two are identical, so you barely notice them. For irregular verbs you need all three:
| Form | Example | Where you use it |
|---|---|---|
| , '' modals | ||
| the past simple tense (I went home) | ||
| participle | the present perfect (I have gone) and the passive (it was eaten) |
This is why the participle matters so much: get it wrong and you break both the present perfect and the passive. I have went is wrong because the present perfect needs the participle, gone.
Pattern 1: all three forms the same
The easiest group. Nothing changes at all.
| Base | Past simple | Past participle |
|---|---|---|
(Note that read is spelled the same but the past forms are pronounced "red".)
Pattern 2: past simple and participle the same
A very large group. Learn one changed form and it covers both.
| Base | Past simple | Past participle |
|---|---|---|
(American English also has gotten as a participle of get; British English uses got.)
Pattern 3: all three forms different
The group learners find hardest, because there is nothing to fall back on. Many of these are among the most common verbs in the language, so they repay the effort.
| Base | Past simple | Past participle |
|---|---|---|
| / | ||
| chosen | ||
| hidden | ||
| bitten | ||
| tore | torn | |
One small family breaks the pattern the other way: the participle is the same as the base form. Come, came, come; become, became, become; run, ran, run. I have come, not I have came.
Pattern 4: the vowel-change families
A subset of pattern 3, but worth seeing together because the vowel shifts the same way (i, a, u). Spot the family and several verbs come for free.
| Base | Past simple | Past participle |
|---|---|---|
| rung | ||
| sunk |
For how the past form is used, see the past simple.
How to learn them
- -frequency . Be, have, do, go, say, get, make, know, take, see and come appear constantly. Master those and you have covered most of your daily speech.
- , alphabetically. A list of 100 verbs in A-to-Z order is a slog. The patterns above give you handholds.
- participle . Learn "go, went, gone" as a set, out loud, not just "go, went".
Common mistakes
Ranked by how often they actually appear:
- participle. I have went, she has ate, they have wrote. The present perfect needs the participle: gone, eaten, written.
- Regularising irregular verb. He goed, she buyed, they teached. These verbs do not take -ed.
- participle 3 4. I have saw it (should be seen), she has began (should be begun).
- vs . Lie (to recline) goes lie, lay, lain. Lay (to put down) goes lay, laid, laid. They overlap confusingly because the past of lie is lay.
Practice
Put the verb in the correct form. Answers are below.
- I have
___(lose) my passport. - She
___(buy) a new phone yesterday. - They have
___(eat) all the cake. - He
___(go) to work an hour ago. - We have never
___(see) snow.
: 1. lost 2. bought 3. eaten 4. went 5. seen