Regular and Irregular Verbs

Every English verb has a base form (the dictionary form), a past simple, and a past participle. The difference between regular and irregular verbs lies in how the past forms are built.

A regular verb builds both past forms by adding -ed to the base. An irregular verb does not — its past forms are unique and have to be learned individually.

Regular: work → worked → worked

Irregular: go → went → gone

Other forms of the verb (the -s form for he/she/it, the -ing form) follow the same rules for both groups. The split only matters in the past.

Regular verbs

For most English verbs, both the past simple and the past participle are built by adding -ed to the base form. The two forms are always identical.

Spelling of *-ed*

Three small spelling rules cover almost every regular verb.

Base ending in silent -e — add only -d. live → lived, move → moved, like → liked, dance → danced.

Base ending in consonant + -y — change y to i, then add -ed. carry → carried, try → tried, study → studied, cry → cried.

If the y follows a vowel, this rule does not apply: play → played, enjoy → enjoyed.

Base ending in a short vowel + single consonant — double the final consonant. stop → stopped, plan → planned, hug → hugged, prefer → preferred.

Pronunciation of *-ed*

The written ending -ed is the same everywhere, but it is pronounced in three different ways depending on the sound that comes before it. This is a reading detail — knowing it helps you understand spoken English without having to drill it.

The spelling never changes — only the sound.

Irregular verbs

An irregular verb does not take -ed in the past. Its past simple and past participle are unique forms that must be memorized. Most irregular verbs change a vowel, an ending, or both.

There are roughly 200 irregular verbs in English, but the 50 most common cover almost all everyday speech. Sorting them into groups by pattern makes them much easier to learn.

Group 1 — all three forms identical

The base, past simple, and past participle look exactly the same. Most of these verbs end in -t.

Group 2 — past simple and past participle identical

The base form changes once, and that new form is used for both past tenses. Many of these end in -ought, -aught, or -old.

Group 3 — three different forms

Each form is distinct. This is the hardest group to memorize, and unfortunately it includes some of the most frequent verbs in the language.

The two most irregular verbs

Be and have are used so often, in so many tenses and structures, that they deserve their own line.

Be is the most irregular verb in English. It has two present forms (am/is, are), two past forms (was, were), and the participle been.

Have is simpler but still irregular. It has the present forms have and has, and a single past form had used as both past simple and past participle.

be — present: am, is, are; past: was, were; past participle: been

have — present: have, has; past: had; past participle: had

Common mistakes

Adding -ed to irregular verbs

Confusing past simple and past participle

Spelling of regular -ed

Doubling the wrong consonant