Irregular Verbs

An irregular verb is one which does not form its past tense and past participle by adding ed to the present tense. See, write and sing are irregular verbs and have the following forms:

Irregular Verb Forms
Present Tense	Past Tense	Past Participle
see	saw	seen
write	wrote	written
sing	sang	sung
arise	arose	arisen
awake	awoke	awoken
am (to be)	was	been
beat	beat	beaten
begin	began	begun
bleed	bled	bled
bind	bound	bound
blow	blew	blown
break	broke	broken
bring	brought	brought
buy	bought	bought
cast	cast	cast
catch	caught	caught
choose	chose	chosen
cling	clung	clung
come	came	come
cost	cost	cost
draw	drew	drawn
drive	drove	driven
drink	drank	drunk
eat	ate	eaten
fall	fell	fallen
fed	fed	fed
feel	felt	felt
fight	fought	fought
find	found	found
flee	fled	fled
fly	flew	flown
forget	forgot	forgotten
get	got	gotten
lie	lay	lain
make	made	made
mean	meant	meant
meet	met	met
see	saw	seen
say	said	said
sell	sold	sold
send	sent	sent
set	set	set
show	showed	shown
slay	slew	slain
shut	shut	shut
sing	sang	sung
sink	sank	sunk
sit	sat	sat
slide	slid	slid
sew	sewed	sewn
steal	stole	stolen
sting	stung	stung
swell	swelled	swollen
swim	swam	swum
take	took	taken
teach	taught	taught
throw	threw	thrown
tread	trod	trodden
wake	woke	woke
wear	wore	worn
go	went	gone
write	wrote	written

Note

Many of the words in the list are irregular to the eye but not to the ear. The preference is one of orthography. Thus, rapt and rapped are pronounced alike. Sometimes the difference in sound is that of t and its correlative d. For example, dwelt dwelled ; spelt spelled.

At this point proceed to Exercise 28.

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