Irregular verbs do not form their past tense with -ed, but most of them fall into a few groups: verbs whose three forms are all the same, verbs that change their vowel, verbs with a different ending, verbs with completely different forms, and verbs with two accepted forms. Learn them group by group, and they are much less scary.
For learners of English, the past tense of irregular verbs can feel like pure horror. It does not have to be. Most of the time, all you need is an overview of the patterns, plus a few rules that are easy to remember.
The past tense of catch, bring, and buy has its own article. This one sorts the other irregular verbs into groups.
Groups of irregular verbs
Irregular verbs can be divided into groups whose members behave in a similar way. Grouping them gives you an overview and makes it easier to learn the members of each group by heart.
- Same form
- Vowel change
- Different endings
- Completely different forms
- More than one form
Same form
Some irregular verbs have the same form for the infinitive, the simple past, and the past participle. In these examples, all three forms look exactly the same, even though they may differ in pronunciation (the past forms of read are pronounced like red):
| Infinitive | Simple past | Past participle |
|---|---|---|
| cost | cost | cost |
| cut | cut | cut |
| hit | hit | hit |
| put | put | put |
| read | read | read |
Vowel change
Many irregular verbs change their vowel in the simple past, in the past participle, or in both, and some add -en to the past participle. Here are some examples:
| Infinitive | Simple past | Past participle |
|---|---|---|
| beat | beat | beaten |
| become | became | become |
| break | broke | broken |
| feed | fed | fed |
| ride | rode | ridden |
Looking at the table above, you can group these verbs even further, by which of their forms are the same:
- The infinitive and the simple past are the same, as in beat.
- The infinitive and the past participle are the same, as in become.
- The simple past and the past participle are the same, as in feed.
- All three forms are different, as in break and ride.
Different endings
In another group, the ending of the past forms differs from the infinitive. Often the vowel changes as well.
| Infinitive | Simple past | Past participle |
|---|---|---|
| bend | bent | bent |
| buy | bought | bought |
| creep | crept | crept |
| pay | paid | paid |
| tell | told | told |
Completely different forms
A few verbs have past forms that can hardly be derived from the infinitive at all. The verb go is the best-known example, and be is another:
| Infinitive | Simple past | Past participle |
|---|---|---|
| go | went | gone |
| be | was, were | been |
More than one form
The last group has not one but two forms for the simple past. Sometimes one form is more common than the other, or preferred by speakers of one variety, such as American or British English (the forms with -t are more common in British English). Here are some examples:
| Infinitive | Form 1 | Form 2 |
|---|---|---|
| burn | burnt | burned |
| dream | dreamt | dreamed |
| kneel | knelt | kneeled |
| lean | leant | leaned |
| shine | shone | shined |
| spit | spat | spit |
Shine is a special case: shone is the usual past of the sun or a light that shines (The sun shone all day), while shined is used when someone polishes something (He shined his shoes). For burnt and burned, see the difference between burned and burnt. For the verbs in general, see all about verbs in English grammar.