English Irregular Verbs

It is your first evening abroad, and someone asks, "So, what did you do today?" You want to say you explored the old town and got lost on the way back, and then your brain stalls on the simplest part: is it "goed" or "went"? Almost every time, it is the same culprits tripping learners up, English irregular verbs. The good news is that only a handful really matter. This guide explains what irregular verbs are, sets out the 50 most common with their meanings, gives a complete reference table, and shows you how to learn them fast.

What irregular verbs are

Every English verb has a set of principal parts, sometimes called its paradigm. For irregular verbs, three forms matter: the base form, the infinitive without "to" (go, eat, write); the past simple (went, ate, wrote); and the past participle, used to build the perfect tenses and the passive (gone, eaten, written). Regular verbs are easy, because both the past simple and the past participle simply add "-ed" (work, worked, worked). Irregular verbs do not follow that rule, and each has to be learned individually. Most English irregular verbs descend from Old English strong verbs, which is why their past forms (sang, drank, took) follow internal vowel changes rather than the "-ed" ending.

How irregular verbs behave

Irregular verbs do not follow a single pattern, but they do fall into recognisable groups, and spotting the group makes learning far quicker. Some change completely (go, went, gone). Some keep one form throughout (cut, cut, cut). Some share the past simple and past participle (bring, brought, brought). A few families rhyme, so drink, drank, drunk behaves like sing, sang, sung and swim, swam, swum. And a verb built on another follows the same pattern, so take, took, taken gives mistake, mistook, mistaken.

How many irregular verbs there are in English

There are several hundred in total. That sounds like a lot, but it is no reason to panic, because in real, everyday English the same classics keep coming up. Those are exactly the ones gathered in the next section: the 50 most common irregular verbs, with their simple past, past participle and meaning.

The 50 most common irregular verbs

Infinitive	Simple past	Past participle	Meaning
be	was / were	been	to be
bear	bore	borne / born	to carry
beat	beat	beaten	to beat
become	became	become	to become
begin	began	begun	to begin
bet	bet	bet	to bet
bite	bit	bitten	to bite
bleed	bled	bled	to bleed
break	broke	broken	to break
bring	brought	brought	to bring
buy	bought	bought	to buy
cast	cast	cast	to throw
catch	caught	caught	to catch
choose	chose	chosen	to choose
come	came	come	to come
cost	cost	cost	to cost
cut	cut	cut	to cut
do	did	done	to do
drink	drank	drunk	to drink
drive	drove	driven	to drive
eat	ate	eaten	to eat
fall	fell	fallen	to fall
feed	fed	fed	to feed
feel	felt	felt	to feel
find	found	found	to find
fly	flew	flown	to fly
forget	forgot	forgotten	to forget
get	got	got / gotten	to get
give	gave	given	to give
go	went	gone	to go
have	had	had	to have
hear	heard	heard	to hear
hit	hit	hit	to hit
keep	kept	kept	to keep
know	knew	known	to know
let	let	let	to allow
make	made	made	to make
read	read	read	to read (past said "red")
ring	rang	rung	to ring
see	saw	seen	to see
speak	spoke	spoken	to speak
stick	stuck	stuck	to stick
swim	swam	swum	to swim
take	took	taken	to take
teach	taught	taught	to teach
tell	told	told	to tell
think	thought	thought	to think
understand	understood	understood	to understand
win	won	won	to win
write	wrote	written	to write

The complete irregular verb table

Base form	Past simple	Past participle
arise	arose	arisen
awake	awoke	awoken
bear	bore	borne
become	became	become
begin	began	begun
bend	bent	bent
bind	bound	bound
blow	blew	blown
breed	bred	bred
build	built	built
burn*	burnt	burnt
burst	burst	burst
creep	crept	crept
deal	dealt	dealt
dig	dug	dug
draw	drew	drawn
dream*	dreamt	dreamt
fight	fought	fought
forbid	forbade	forbidden
forgive	forgave	forgiven
freeze	froze	frozen
grow	grew	grown
hang	hung	hung
hide	hid	hidden
hold	held	held
hurt	hurt	hurt
kneel	knelt	knelt
lay	laid	laid
lead	led	led
learn*	learnt	learnt
leave	left	left
lend	lent	lent
lie (recline)	lay	lain
light	lit	lit
lose	lost	lost
mean	meant	meant
meet	met	met
mistake	mistook	mistaken
overcome	overcame	overcome
pay	paid	paid
put	put	put
ride	rode	ridden
rise	rose	risen
run	ran	run
say	said	said
seek	sought	sought
sell	sold	sold
send	sent	sent
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
slide	slid	slid
smell*	smelt	smelt
spell*	spelt	spelt
spend	spent	spent
spill*	spilt	spilt
spit	spat	spat
spread	spread	spread
stand	stood	stood
steal	stole	stolen
sting	stung	stung
swear	swore	sworn
sweep	swept	swept
tear	tore	torn
throw	threw	thrown
tread	trod	trodden
undertake	undertook	undertaken
wake	woke	woken
wear	wore	worn
weep	wept	wept
wind	wound	wound

Which to learn first

Some irregular verbs come up constantly, so start with the highest-frequency ones: be, have, do, go, get, make, say, see, come, take, know, give, find, think, tell, become, leave, feel, bring, keep, hold, write, stand, hear, let, mean, meet, run, pay, put, read and set. Master these, and you will handle the vast majority of everyday conversation before tackling the rarer verbs.

How to learn irregular verbs

At first the list looks like a mountain, but the right methods quickly shrink it to a hill. Learn each verb in its three forms together, base, past simple and past participle, rather than in isolation. Group them by shared pattern (the sing, sang, sung family, or a verb and its prefixed form like take and mistake) instead of ploughing through the alphabet. Write them out by hand, cover a column and fill it from memory, and say the forms aloud, since hearing your own voice aids memory. Keep sessions short and regular, a few minutes each evening beats one long cramming session. Above all, use them: a verb you only meet on a list stays on the list, while a verb you use in real conversation becomes yours.

Common mistakes

Three slips are especially common. First, treating an irregular verb as regular: it is went, not "goed", and saw, not "seed". Second, marking the past twice in questions and negatives: because "did" already carries the tense, write "Did you go?", not "Did you went?". Third, confusing the past simple with the past participle: it is "I have seen", not "I have saw", and "she has gone", not "she has went". Learning the three forms as a set fixes all three.