An irregular verb is a verb which doesn’t follow the pattern of an ‘ed’ ending (for the past simple or past participle). The past simple and participle could be exactly the same as the infinitive, or they could be totally different words altogether. It’s up to you to learn them (all 200 of them!).
There are 3 columns for you to remember (infinitive, past tense and past participle). So, if we do the maths 3 x 200 is 600 words. That’s quite a lot, isn’t it?
I don’t want to scare you too much, so I’ll crack on with the good news:
Some of the irregular verbs aren’t very common so you won’t need to learn them.
The great news is that some verbs follow the same pattern, so they are easier for you to remember.
AND…
The best news is that you’ve found this page! I’ve simplified everything and created some learning materials to make it easy for you.
irregular verbs past tense endings
As I mentioned above, some irregular past tense verbs follow the same pattern. By this I mean that the infinitive and/or the past simple and/or the past participle have a similar spelling or pronunciation.
I have grouped them into tables of verbs with the same pattern for you to learn.
Take a look and practice saying them out loud.
irregular verb list
Once you’ve learnt the tables above, here’s a complete list of all the irregular verbs (with the infinitive, past simple and past perfect) for you brave souls to look through at your leisure.
most common irregular verbs list
Ok, so the list above is pretty big and to be fair, you probably won’t use a lot of them.
So, I’ve narrowed down the above list to 50 of the most commonly used irregular verbs. If you can, try and learn this list.
British vs American English verb endings
You may have noticed somewhere along your English language learning journey that some verbs can be spelt differently. This is because there are differences between British English and American English. One of the differences is with verbs. For some verbs, British English uses an irregular verb, but in American English, it’s regular.
Let’s take a look at the verbs that differ.
Verb endings aren’t the only difference between the two. Click here to find out about other differences between British and American English.
irregular verb exercises
Are you ready to test your knowledge on irregular verbs? Answers are at the bottom. Good luck, I believe in you!
Fill in the blanks
Fill in the blanks – individual verbs
