Learn English – How to differentiate between regular and irregular verbs

historyirregular-formspast-participles

As I know that in regular verbs we put 'ed' and in irregular verb we do not put 'ed' while changing it into the past or past participle.

But for anyone who does not know about the 2nd and 3rd form of verb, how should he/she know that word is a regular or irregular verb?

Best Answer

Good question. The answer is that irregular means 'not following the rules'.

In this case, the "rules" are for the regular verbs, and they say

  1. The past form and the participle form of regular verbs are the same
    (i.e, "2nd form" = "3rd form")
  2. These forms of regular verbs add "-ed"
    (sometimes spelt differently).

So irregular verbs must violate those rules, which means either

  1. they don't use "-ed", or
  2. they have three forms instead of two.

Any dictionary will give the forms of a verb, but only in code. Here's the key:

  1. if the dictionary indicates that the past form is "-ed", or "-d" or "-t",
    or if it's a special form like spent, where "d" changes to t,
    or if there is no participle form given,
    then it's regular
  2. if the dictionary gives three forms (like sing, sang, sung),
    or no verb form ends in "d" or "t" (like wear, wore, worn),
    then it's irregular.

Plus, there are very few irregular verbs, and they follow common patterns, and they occur often.
Which means you can learn them from a list, like this one.

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