IRREGULAR VERBS

Irregular verbs are less consistent in their past and past participle forms. Although English has fewer irregular verbs than regular, there are hundreds of them. Many are among the most commonly used verbs in English.

Here are a small number:

present past past participle

I begin I began I have begun

I break I broke I have broken

I bring I brought I have brought

I drink I drank I have drunk

I drive I drove I have driven

I fly I flew I have flown

I freeze I froze I have frozen

I know I knew I have known

I ride I rode I have ridden

I ring I rang I have rung

I see I saw I have seen

I sink I sank I have sunk

I speak I spoke I have spoken

I swim I swam I have swum

I swing I swung I have swung

I take I took I have taken

I write I wrote I have written

All of us make errors now and then with some of the irregular verbs, and it’s a good idea to identify those that give you the most trouble and study them. The table above gives you some of the most common irregulars, and you can find complete lists in many

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grammar books and on the Internet. A dictionary can always help you with specific verbs.

One way to study irregulars is to group the verbs that are similar in their past and past participle forms, like this:

present past past participle

I begin I began I have begun

I drink I drank I have drunk

I ring I rang I have rung

I sink I sank I have sunk

I swim I swam I have swum

I break I broke I have broken

I freeze I froze I have frozen

I speak I spoke I have spoken

I drive I drove I have driven

I ride I rode I have ridden

I write I wrote I have written

I fly I flew I have flown

I know I knew I have known

The following are verbs that you may also want to study.

The verb dive is in fact regular:

I dive I dived I have dived

But dove, as a past and past participle, has become so common that it is now widely accepted.

We might call the verb burst “super-regular”. It doesn’t change at all:

Today I burst Yesterday I burst I have burst Other super-regular verbs include hit, set, and split.

Shine is a peculiar case. Used as a transitive verb (which we’ll study soon), it’s regular: They have shined their trophies every month.

They shine They shined They have shined As an intransitive verb (another term that’s coming up), it’s irregular: The sun has shone all day.

It shines It shone It had shone

The verb hang is also peculiar, taking different forms depending on its meaning. Imagine you’re in a dusty little town in the Old West, and you ask a gnarled old-timer, “Whatever happened to that grammar teacher?” And the old-timer answers,

We’ve hanged that danged grammar teacher. He was all the time correctin’ us!

But if you’re proudly displaying your framed diploma on the wall, you could say,

I’ve finally hung my diploma.

There are six verbs (grouped in pairs below) that confuse us all at some point:

I sit down.

I lie down.

I rise up.

I set the books down.

I lay the books down.

I raise the books up.

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In the left column, the verbs indicate the way you are positioning yourself. They are all irregular verbs. In the right column, the verbs indicate the way you are positioning the object (or anything else separate from yourself). They are all regular.

It’s easy to keep these two sets of verbs straight: The verbs on the left all have the letter i as their first vowel. Remember that “the i-verbs indicate how I change my position.”

Let’s take a look at the principal parts of these three pairs of verbs. Notice that the second verb in each pair is regular. You probably know these already:

present past past participle

I sit I set

I sat I set

I have sat I have set You may also know these:

present past past participle

I rise I raise

I rose I raised

I have risen I have raised

Perhaps the most difficult of all irregular verbs are lie and lay:

present past past participle

I lie (recline) I lay (set down) I lie (fib)

I lay I laid I lied

I have lain I have laid I have lied

As you see here, there are two verbs to lie. One means to recline, and one means to fib. Lie (to fib) is easy—it’s a regular verb. Lay (to set down) is also a regular verb.

Lie (to recline) is irregular, and it confuses many people

because its past form, I lay, is identical to the present form of to lay (set down).

To add to the confusion, in speech I lay down (the correct form) sounds exactly like I laid down (the wrong form), so we’re often making mistakes because we’re repeating the forms we hear—or think we hear. (The whole thing makes us want to lie down, no lie.)

It is probably accurate to say that many English speakers, perhaps most of us, misuse lie sometimes, but you can master it in a few moments and remember it with a little review now and then.

Even with irregular verbs, the past participle is always used with the auxiliary have (or its other forms has or had) to create perfect tenses (have lain). Forms of the verb be are always used with the -ing form (the present participle) to create progressive tenses.

EXERCISES

3a. Write from memory the simple and perfect tenses of the verb call.

3b. Write from memory the simple progressive and perfect progressive tenses of the verb call.

3c. Write from memory the simple and perfect tenses of the verb know.

3d. Write from memory the simple progressive and perfect progressive tenses of the verb know.

3e. Complete these sentences using the correct verb and the correct principal part:

1. I will ___ here. (sit / set)

2. I will ___ my suitcase in the corner. (sit / set)

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3. I will ___ my bag to the top shelf. (rise / raise) 4. I will ___ from my seat. (rise / raise)

5. I have ___ from my seat. (risen / raised) 6. I have ___ my bag. (risen / raised)

7. I will ___ down. (lie / lay)

8. I will ___ my bag over here. (lie / lay) 9. I have ___ here for an hour. (lain / laid) 10. An hour ago, I ___ my bag there. (lain / laid)

3f. Complete the sentences using one or more auxiliary verbs:

1. The perfect tenses use forms of the auxiliary verb ___.

2. The progressive tenses use forms of the auxiliary verb ___.

3. The perfect progressive tenses use forms of two auxiliary verbs: ___ and ___.

4. All future tenses use the auxiliary ___.

3g. Identify the tense of the verb in each of the following sentences using one of these twelve terms:

• Simple past, present, or future

• Present perfect, past perfect, or future perfect

• Present progressive, past progressive, or future progressive

• Present perfect progressive, past perfect progressive, or future perfect progressive

1. She was here yesterday.

2. We have been waiting for you for an hour.

3. She broke her glasses.

4. She has broken her glasses twice.

5. Yesterday’s news burst all our illusions.

6. I will speak to the principal.

7. I will be speaking to the principal.

8. We had spoken to the principal already.

9. You will have been speaking to the principal by now.

10. I have sung this song before.

3h. Complete the sentences using the names of principal parts of the verbs, or with the auxiliaries will, have, and be.

1. The perfect tenses are constructed using the third principal part, called the ___.

2. The progressive tenses are constructed using the fourth principal part, called the ___.

3. All future tense verbs begin with the auxiliary ___.

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4. All perfect tenses are constructed using some form of the auxiliary ___.

5. All progressive tenses are constructed using some form of the auxiliary ___.

6. The tenses constructed using both the auxiliaries have and be are called the ___ tenses.

Tall, Dark, and