Irregular Verbs

What are they? The way a verb forms its past tense determines its classification as regular or irregular. A regular verb takes the –d or –ed ending to denote the past tense.

Irregular verbs do not take the –d or –ed ending Irregular verbs do not take the –d or –ed ending. They are inflected in various other ways to indicate past tense.

Examples believe → believed smile → smiled Irregular run → ran eat → ate

An irregular verb forms its past and past participle by changing vowels (run-- ran) or consonants (build– built) or by changing vowels and consonants (catch – caught) or by making no changes (burst, cost)

Principal Parts of Verbs Every verb has four basic parts, which are called its principal parts. You must know all of these in order to form the different tenses correctly. Present (aka Infinitive) Past Present Participle Past Participle

Present (aka Infinitive) existing or happening now know to know take to take write to write

Past existed or happened in the past knew took wrote

Present Participle The present participle of a verb always ends in –ing. knowing taking writing

Past Participle The past participle of a verb always requires a helping verb (have, has, had). had known have taken has written

Practice Present Past Past Participle begin 1. __________ have begun freeze 2. __________ have frozen write wrote 3. _________ blow 4. __________ have blown drive drove 5. _________ wear wore 6. _________ sing 7. __________ have sung ride 8. __________ have ridden

Practice Present Past Past Participle begin 1. have begun freeze 2. have frozen write wrote 3. blow 4. have blown drive drove 5. wear wore 6. sing 7. have sung ride 8. have ridden

Practice Present Past Past Participle choose chose 9. _________ go 10. _________ have gone run 11. _________ have run throw threw 12. ________ come came 13. ________ see saw 14. ________ speak 15. _________ have spoken burst 16. _________ have burst

Practice Present Past Past Participle choose chose 9. go 10. have gone run 11. have run throw threw 12. come came 13. see saw 14. speak 15. have spoken burst 16. have burst

Practice Present Past Past Participle swim swam 17. ________ sink sank 18. ________ break 19. _________ have broken bring 20. _________ have brought

Practice Present Past Past Participle swim swam 17. sink sank 18. break 19. have broken bring 20. have brought