Top grammatical exceptions

What is an irregular verb? Linguists tend to describe it as “a verb that is not supposed to be able to adjust to the standard grammar rules. For example, 'eat' is an irregular verb as its past tense is 'ate' and its past participle is 'eaten', but not 'eated',” according to the Macmillan Dictionary. According to the Oxford Learners’ Dictionary, an irregular verb is determined as a verb that is “not formed in the normal way.”

Conjugating Irregular Verbs – Rules and Examples

Learning to conjugate irregular verbs is a little tricky. It is often considered quite a difficult task, but that is not the case. And before we go ahead, try to unlearn the images or notions about irregular verbs you have in your mind. Let us start from the very beginning with a fresh and clear mind.

The conjugation of irregular verbs can be learnt under 3 main groups based on how they behave when changed to represent the simple past and past participle forms.

It can be grouped as follows:

Group 1 – irregular verbs that take the same spelling as the base verb in the simple past form and the past participle form. These verbs just stay the same throughout all tense forms.

Group 2 – irregular verbs that have the same spelling in the simple past form and the past participle form. There are several irregular verbs in Group 2 that take an alternate spelling, too.

Group 3 – irregular verbs that have 3 different spelling patterns in the base form, the simple past form and the past participle form.

Let us now look at the list of irregular verbs which are most common in English speech. l advise you just to hide certain forms and try to guess what group the verb belongs to. Try to learn 10 verbs per day without forcing.

25 most top English irregular verbs

awake- awoke-awoken

be-was/were-been

beat-beat-beaten

begin-began-begun

bite-bit-bitten

blow-blew-blown

break-broke-broken

bring-brought-brought

build-built-built

buy-bought-bought

catch-caught-caught

choose-chose-chosen

come-came-come

cost-cost-cost

cut-cut-cut

do-did-done

deal-dealt-dealt

dig-dug-dug

dream-dreamt-dreamt

draw-drew-drawn

drink-drank-drunk

drive-drove-driven

eat-ate-eaten

fall-fell-fallen

feed-fed-fed

Free Irregular Verbs training app

By the way, Easy5Verbs game allows you to learn all the forms of 100+ irregular verbs of the English language, which are used most often in everyday life in just 3 weeks. To do this, you will need to take 1 lesson per day, and this is only 5 verbs. The game is available offline. The app is free and adapted for iOS and Android. Download Easy5Verbs right now and master irregular verbs!