English has over 200 irregular verbs — verbs that do not form the past simple and past participle by simply adding -ed. These verbs are among the most commonly used in everyday English, which means knowing them is essential for fluency. In this guide you will find all the irregular verbs you need grouped by pattern, with example sentences and memory tips for each group.
Key Takeaways
- English has roughly 200 irregular verbs, but the 50 most frequent ones cover the vast majority of everyday usage.
- Learning verbs in groups by shared pattern (e.g. i→a→u, same past and participle) is far more efficient than memorising a random list.
- The most important irregular verbs to master first are be, have, do, go, say, make, get, know, think and take.
- The past participle is always used with an auxiliary verb — in perfect tenses, passive constructions, and as an adjective.
- Regular practice through sentence production, story-writing, and gap-fill exercises builds lasting recall far better than passive reading.
Why Irregular Verbs Matter
Irregular verbs are not random exceptions — they are the oldest, most deeply embedded verbs in the language. When you say I went to the shops rather than I goed, or She has broken the record rather than She has breaked it, you are using forms inherited directly from Old English. Because these verbs are used constantly, errors with them are immediately noticeable to native speakers.
The good news is that irregular verbs follow patterns. Once you recognise a pattern, you can apply it to a whole family of verbs rather than memorising each one separately. The five groups below cover the most important patterns you need to know.
Group 1 — No Change (base = past = participle)
The simplest group: the verb is identical in all three forms. Common examples include cut/cut/cut, hit/hit/hit, let/let/let, put/put/put, set/set/set, shut/shut/shut, split/split/split, spread/spread/spread, and hurt/hurt/hurt. Many of these are short, one-syllable verbs ending in -t or -d.
| Base form | Past simple | Past participle | Example |
|---|---|---|---|
| cut | cut | cut | She cut the paper carefully. |
| hit | hit | hit | He hit the ball over the fence. |
| put | put | put | I put the keys on the table. |
| let | let | let | They let us in through the back door. |
| hurt | hurt | hurt | She has hurt her knee again. |
Memory tip: These verbs all end in -t or -d. The spelling does not change because the -ed suffix would be redundant — the -t already signals the past.
Group 2 — i → a → u Pattern
This is the most recognisable vowel-shift pattern in English. Learn one verb and you learn the whole family: sing/sang/sung, ring/rang/rung, drink/drank/drunk, swim/swam/swum, begin/began/begun, run/ran/run.
| Base form | Past simple | Past participle | Example |
|---|---|---|---|
| sing | sang | sung | She sang a beautiful song at the concert. |
| ring | rang | rung | The phone had already rung twice. |
| drink | drank | drunk | He drank three cups of tea this morning. |
| swim | swam | swum | They swam across the lake in under an hour. |
| begin | began | begun | The lesson has already begun. |
Memory tip: Chant the pattern aloud — sing, sang, sung; ring, rang, rung; drink, drank, drunk — the rhythm makes it stick. Note that run/ran/run breaks the pattern slightly, with the participle returning to the base form.
Group 3 — Same Past and Participle (−t ending)
Many very common irregular verbs have the same form for past simple and past participle, often ending in -t or with a vowel change plus -t: bring/brought/brought, buy/bought/bought, catch/caught/caught, fight/fought/fought, teach/taught/taught, think/thought/thought, seek/sought/sought, feel/felt/felt, keep/kept/kept, leave/left/left, mean/meant/meant, meet/met/met, send/sent/sent, sleep/slept/slept.
| Base form | Past simple | Past participle | Example |
|---|---|---|---|
| teach | taught | taught | She taught English for twenty years. |
| bring | brought | brought | He has brought flowers every week. |
| feel | felt | felt | I felt exhausted after the exam. |
| keep | kept | kept | They kept all his letters. |
| leave | left | left | She left before the rain started. |
Memory tip: Group the -ought verbs together — bring, buy, catch, fight, seek, teach, think — they all share the same vowel change and ending.
Group 4 — Three Different Forms (often −en participle)
These verbs have all three forms different, with the past participle frequently ending in -en or -n: break/broke/broken, choose/chose/chosen, drive/drove/driven, fall/fell/fallen, fly/flew/flown, give/gave/given, grow/grew/grown, know/knew/known, ride/rode/ridden, rise/rose/risen, speak/spoke/spoken, steal/stole/stolen, take/took/taken, throw/threw/thrown, wake/woke/woken, write/wrote/written.
| Base form | Past simple | Past participle | Example |
|---|---|---|---|
| speak | spoke | spoken | She spoke fluent French. / She has spoken at many conferences. |
| write | wrote | written | He wrote the report overnight. |
| drive | drove | driven | They drove through the night to reach Edinburgh. |
| know | knew | known | I knew the answer immediately. |
| take | took | taken | She has taken her driving test three times. |
Memory tip: For many of these verbs the past simple adds -e or shifts the vowel (drive→drove, write→wrote), and the participle adds -n or -en. Focus on the participle endings — -en, -n — and they become predictable.
Group 5 — be / go / have (must memorise individually)
The most irregular verbs in English are also the most frequently used. They must be learnt individually as they do not fit any of the patterns above: be → was/were → been, go → went → gone, have → had → had, do → did → done. Note that be has two past simple forms — was (singular) and were (plural and second person) — which makes it uniquely irregular even among irregular verbs.
| Base form | Past simple | Past participle | Example |
|---|---|---|---|
| be | was / were | been | I was tired. / They were late. |
| go | went | gone | He has gone home already. |
| have | had | had | She had a meeting at nine o'clock. |
| do | did | done | She did her homework before dinner. |
Memory tip: Because these verbs are so frequent, you will encounter them constantly in reading and listening. Exposure alone will build automaticity — but it helps to consciously note each form the first time you see it used in a new context.
How to Practise Irregular Verbs
The most effective practice methods for irregular verbs are: (1) Sentence production — for each verb, write your own example sentence in past simple and present perfect; (2) Story chains — write a short story using ten verbs from one group; (3) Spaced repetition flash cards — add the base form to the front and past/participle to the back; (4) Gap-fill exercises — complete sentences by supplying the correct form. LexFizz's Complete the Sentence and Cloze Dropdown exercises are excellent for this type of practice.
Research into vocabulary acquisition consistently shows that the most durable learning comes from retrieval practice — actively recalling a form — rather than passive reading. When you use a flash card or complete a gap-fill, you are retrieving the form from memory, which strengthens the neural pathway. Reading a verb table, by contrast, creates only shallow encoding. Use both, but prioritise active practice.
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