Irregular verbs in English

Irregular verbs are verbs that do not form the past simple tense and the past participle by adding -ed to the base form. There are three main groups of irregular verbs in English.

In Group A, the base form, the past simple and the past participle are the same:

1. The base form, e.g. put
2. The present simple tense, e.g. puts
3. The past simple tense, e.g. put
4. The present participle, e.g. putting
5. The past participle, e.g. put

Some verbs in Group A include:  bet, burst, cast, cut, hit, hurt, let, put, shut, set, shed, split, spread, thrust, upset.

In Group B, the past simple and the past participle have the same form:

1. The base form, e.g. buy
2. The present simple tense, e.g. buys
3. The past simple tense, e.g. bought
4. The present participle, e.g. buying
5. The past participle, e.g. bought

Some verbs in Group B include:

base form	past form
bend	bent
bind	bound
bleed	bled
bring	brought
build	built
buy	bought
catch	caught
find	found
hang	hung
have	had
hear	heard
keep	kept
kneel	knelt
lay	laid
make	made
say	said

In Group C, the base form, the past simple, and the past participle all have different forms:

1. The base form, e.g. go
2. The present simple tense, e.g. goes
3. The past simple tense, e.g. went
4. The present participle, e.g. going
5. The past participle, e.g. gone

Some verbs in Group C include:

base form	past forms
arise	arose	arisen
awake	awoke	awoken
bear	bore	borne
begin	began	begun
bite	bit	bitten
blow	blew	blown
break	broke	broken
fly	flew	flown
give	gave	given
know	knew	known
ride	rode	ridden
ring	rang	rung
rise	rose	risen
saw	sawed	sawn
see	saw	seen
shake	shook	shaken
show	showed	shown
shrink	shrank	shrunk
strive	strove	striven
take	took	taken
throw	threw	thrown
write	wrote	written

For further information on English Grammar, visit: https://grammar.collinsdictionary.com/easy-learning

Come back for other blogs on using English in everyday situations: https://blog.collinsdictionary.com/language-learners/learning-english

All opinions expressed on this blog are those of the individual writers, and do not necessarily reflect the opinions or policies of Collins, or its parent company, HarperCollins.