Regular and Irregular verbs


 

 

REGULAR AND IRREGULAR VERBS

 

The action verbs are also classified as regular and irregular verbs

REGULAR VERBS:

These kind of verbs form their past and past participle forms by adding –ed.

If a Verb required -ed, -d, or -t to be added to the Present Tense to form the Past, with or without any change of the inside vowel, it is also known as a Weak Verbs.

EG: Walk   – walked  – walked

       Dance – danced  – danced

       Paint   – painted – painted

       Work  – worked  – worked

 

IRREGULAR VERBS

They form their past and past participle forms in different ways.

The Verbs form their Past Tense by merely changing the inside vowel of the Present Tense, without having -ed, or -d, or -t, added to the Present. Such Verbs are called Strong Verbs, because they are able to make their Past Tense without having anything added.

 

There are mainly three types of irregular verbs.

·        Verbs in which all the three forms are the same        (e.g. put – put – put)

·        Verbs in which two of the three forms are the same (e.g. sit – sat – sat)

·        Verbs in which all three forms are different                (e.g. drink – drank – drunk)

 

·        Some verbs can be both regular and irregular. Examples are:

1        Burn – burnt – burnt                        (irregular)

Burn – burned – burned                   (regular)

 

2        Dream – dreamt – dreamt               (irregular)

          Dream – dreamed – dreamed          (regular)

 

3        Lean – lent – lent                               (irregular)

          Lean – leaned – leaned                     (regular)

 

4        Learn – learnt – learnt                      (irregular)

          Learn – learned – learned                 (regular)

 

5        Leap – leapt – leapt                           (irregular)

          Leap – leaped – leaped                     (regular)

 

6        Smell – smelt – smelt                       (irregular)

          Smell – smelled – smelled                (regular)

 

7        Spill – spilt – spilt                              (irregular)

          Spill – spilled – spilled                      (regular)

 

8        Spoil – spoilt – spoilt                        (irregular)

          Spoil – spoiled – spoiled                   (regular)