This might just be availability bias on my part, but it seems to me that if a verb ends is a "d" sound then it's a lot more likely to have an irregular past tense than an average verb picked out at random. Examples include "feed/fed", "stand/stood", "rend/rent", "tread/trod", "betide/betid".
So, is this an actual pattern, or am I just imagining it?
And if it is a real pattern, what's the explanation?
Best Answer
Preserved from comments to the question:
It's related to the rule that we cannot have geminate consonants in English - so we cannot add the past tense morpheme /d/ onto a base that already ends with a /d/ (or /t/). So for example we cannot make the word /endd/ as a past form of the verb END. Usually, for most verbs we add an epenthetic vowel (so for the past form of END we get ended, /endɪd/). However, a different strategy is to reduce the final consonant, so for example instead of /bɪdd/ for the past of bid we can have either /bɪd/ with the double /dd/ reduced or /bɪdɪd/. – Araucaria
A different strategy is to use devoicing as well as consonant reduction 'build' --> 'built'. There are 34 possible endings for a verb in English, but verbs whose base ends in /d/ or /t/ make up between 35-42% of all irregular verbs. – Araucaria