List of irregular verbs

When you use a past simple form or a past participle form of a verb, some verbs are regular verbs and some verbs are irregular verbs. If a verb is regular, the past simple and past participle end in -ed. But when the past simple and past participle don't end in -ed, the verb is irregular. The following verbs are irregular verbs.

infinitive

past simple

past participle

be

was/were

been

beat

beat

beaten

become

became

become

begin

began

begun

bend

bent

bent

bet

bet

bet

bite

bit

bitten

blow

blew

blown

break

broke

broken

bring

brought

brought

build

built

built

burst

burst

burst

buy

bought

bought

catch

caught

caught

choose

chose

chosen

come

came

come

cost

cost

cost

cut

cut

cut

deal

dealt

dealt

dig

dug

dug

do

did

done

draw

drew

drawn

drink

drank

drunk

drive

drove

driven

eat

ate

eaten

fall

fell

fallen

feed

fed

fed

feel

felt

felt

fight

fought

fought

find

found

found

fly

flew

flown

forbid

forbade

forbidden

forget

forgot

forgotten

forgive

forgave

forgiven

freeze

froze

frozen

get

got

got

give

gave

given

go

went

gone

grow

grew

grown

hang

hung

hung

have

had

had

hear

heard

heard

hide

hid

hidden

hit

hit

hit

hold

held

held

hurt

hurt

hurt

keep

kept

kept

know

knew

known

lay

laid

laid

lead

led

led

leave

left

left

lend

lent

lent

let

let

let

lie

lay

lain

light

lit

lit

lose

lost

lost

make

made

made

mean

meant

meant

meet

met

met

pay

paid

paid

put

put

put

read /ri:d/

read /red/

read /red/

ride

rode

ridden

ring

rang

rung

rise

rose

risen

run

ran

run

say

said

said

see

saw

seen

seek

sought

sought

sell

sold

sold

send

sent

sent

set

set

set

sew

sewed

sewn/sewed

shake

shook

shaken

shine

shone

shone

shoot

shot

shot

show

showed

shown

shrink

shrank

shrunk

shut

shut

shut

sing

sang

sung

sink

sank

sunk

sit

sat

sat

sleep

slept

slept

speak

spoke

spoken

spend

spent

spent

split

split

split

spread

spread

spread

spring

sprang

sprung

stand

stood

stood

steal

stole

stolen

stick

stuck

stuck

sting

stung

stung

stink

stank

stunk

strike

struck

struck

swear

swore

sworn

sweep

swept

swept

swim

swam

swum

swing

swung

swung

take

took

taken

teach

taught

taught

tear

tore

torn

tell

told

told

think

thought

thought

throw

threw

thrown

understand

understood

understood

wake

woke

woken

wear

wore

worn

win

won

won

write

wrote

written

 

 

Rules for Irregular Plural Formation of Nouns

The majority of nouns in English spell their plural by simply adding a final -s. Nouns that are noncount or abstract (e.g., cheese, sugar, honesty, intelligence) generally take a singular verb, but in some instances can be plural, in which case they follow the rules for plural based on their spelling. Also, there are some categories of words which are only plural, even though their spelling does not reflect this. They are included in a list at the end of this page. For irregular count nouns and nouns that have been borrowed from other languages, the rules are as follows:

Variations of the final -s rule:

Add -es

glass/glasses, buzz/buzzes, box/boxes, bush/bushes, switch/switches

potato/potatoes, echo/echoes, hero/heroes

exceptions: studio/studios, piano/pianos, kangaroo/kangaroos, zoo/zoos

either: buffalo/buffalo(e)s, cargo/cargo(e)s, motto/motto(e)s,

volcano/volcano(e)s

Change -y to -i and add -es

baby/babies, spy/spies, poppy/poppies

shelf/shelves, wolf/wolves, knife/knives, wife/wives

Nouns adopted from other languages:

analysis/analyses, basis/bases

datum/data, curriculum/curricula

criterion/criteria, phenomenon/phenomena

formula/formulae, antenna/antennae

appendix/appendices, index/indices

focus/foci, stimulus/stimuli

corpus/corpora, genus/genera

bureau/bureaux, beau/beaux

Nouns that have only a plural form and so take a plural verb

Clothes: jeans, pants, pajamas, shorts, trousers

brains (intellect), clothes, communications, congratulations, contents,

stairs, thanks, goods

Irregular Nouns

SINGULAR

PLURAL

alumnus

alumni

analysis

analyses

antenna

antennae/antennas

appendix

appendices

axis

axes

bacterium

bacteria

basis

bases

beau

beaux

bureau

bureaux/bureaus

child

children

corpus

corpora/corpuses

crisis

crises

criterion

criteria

curriculum

curricula

datum

data

deer

deer

diagnosis

diagnoses

ellipsis

ellipses

fish

fish

focus

foci/focuses

foot

feet

formula

formulae/formulas

fungus

fungi/funguses

genus

genera

goose

geese

hypothesis

hypotheses

index

indices/indexes

louse

lice

man

men

matrix

matrices

means

means

medium

media

mouse

mice

nebula

nebulae

nucleus

nuclei

oasis

oases

ox

oxen

paralysis

paralyses

parenthesis

parentheses

phenomenon

phenomena

radius

radii

series

series

sheep

sheep

species

species

stimulus

stimuli

stratum

strata

synthesis

syntheses

synopsis

synopses

tableau

tableaux

thesis

theses

tooth

teeth

vertebra

vertebrae

vita

vitae

woman

women

 

Rules for Irregular Spelling of Verb Inflections

Verb inflections include any endings added to the base form of the verb. These include -s, -ing, and -ed. Spelling for the majority of verbs is regular, and the inflections are simply added to the base form. For a few verbs, though, the spelling does change, and the rules are outlined below. For more information on irregular verbs and verb tenses, please see the List of Irregular Verbs at this web site.

Doubling of Consonants

1. If the base form ends in a single consonant and the preceding vowel is stressed and spelled with only one letter, double the consonant before adding -ing and -ed

occur/occurring, swim/swimming, ship/shipping

2. If the preceding vowel is unstressed or spelled with two vowels, do not double the consonant

enter/entering, visit/visiting, develop/developing, dread/dreading,
appeal/appealing, shout/shouting

3. If the base form ends in -c, change the -c to -ck

panic/panicking, picnic/picnicking

4. There are exceptions with some verbs ending in -l, -m, and -p

travel--traveling or travelling
program--programing or programming
worship--worshiping or worshipping

Deletion or Addition of -e

1. If the base form ends in an unpronounced -e, drop the -e before adding -ing and -ed inflections

create/creating, type/typing, bake/baking

2. For monosyllabic verbs ending in -ye, -oe, or -nge, keep the final -e before -ing, but drop it before -ed

dye--dyeing/dyed
hoe--hoeing/hoed
singe--singeing/singed

3. If the base form ends in -ie or -ee, drop the final -e before -ed

die/died, agree/agreed, tie/tied

4. If the verb ends in -s, -z, -x, -sh, and -ch, add -e before the -s ending

pass/passes, buzz/buzzes, coax/coaxes, wash/washes, watch/watches

Treatment of -y

1. If the base form ends in -y, change the -y to -ie

carry/carries, try/tries

2. If the base form ends in -ed, change the -y to -i

carry/carried, try/tried

3. Following a vowel or preceding -ing, the -y remains

stay/stayed, toy/toying, try/trying, carry/carrying

4. If the base form ends in -ie, change the -ie to -y before -ing

die/dying, lie/lying, tie/tying

 

 

Pat Byrd — Department of Applied Linguistics & ESL — Georgia State University — Atlanta, GA 30302
patbyrd@gsu.edu & tmcklin@gsu.edu