English irregular verbs

Regular verbs in English have four forms:

• the base, which is equivalent to the infinitive without 'to' and most forms of the present tense (for example, wait, to wait, I wait)
• the -s form, which is used for the third person singular of the present tense (he waits, she waits)
• the -ing form, used for the present participle and gerund
• the past form, which is used both for the past tense and the past participle, and which consists of adding -ed to the base, or, in the case of verbs ending in -e, -d only (I waited, she has waited)

Irregular verbs have these forms, and form the -s and -ing forms regularly: béar, béars, béaring. But the past tense and/or past participle are not formed regularly, as is the case with béar, bŏre, bŏrn (shê bŏre hím, hê was bŏrn). (The accents, which are not part of the language, are included to show stress and pronunciation: see English spellings for a table and English phonemes for the IPA. Words in italics suggest meaning, and an equals sign is placed between homophones.) Others have associated passive adjectives like súnken, from sínk, sánk, súnk (súnken chêeks) and as in såwn-óff shótgun and neŵ-môwn låwns, and these are included in cases where their form is different from the past participle (regular verbs with this feature are included here). Not all the forms are in common use: for example, people are still described as being behôlden to others, but the verb itself, behóld, meaning look at, is nowadays only used poetically or in jest.

Table of irregular verbs

base	past tense	past participle	past passive adjective
béãr birth	bŏre	bŏrn
béar suffered, carried	bŏre	bŏrne
bêat	bêat	bêaten
begín	begán	begún
behóld	behéld	behéld	behôlden
bénd	bént	bént
berêave	berêaved	berêaved	beréft
besêech	besŏught	besŏught
bíd auction	bíd	bíd
bíd ask	báde (= bád wrong)	bídden
bînd	bòund	bòund
bîte	bít	bítten
blêed	bléd	bléd
bléss	bléssed =	bléssed, blést, same pronunciation	bléssed, pronounced *bléssíd
blôw	bleŵ (= blûe colour)	blôwn
breâk	brôke	brôken
brêed	bréd	bréd
bríng	brŏught	brŏught
buíld	buílt	buílt
bürn	bürned, bürnt	bürnt, bürned
bürst	bürst	bürst
buy	bŏught	bŏught
cāst	cāst	cāst
cátch (-s form cátches)	cåught	cåught
chîde	chîded, chíd	chîded	chídden
choôse	chôse	chôsen
clêave	clôve	clôven	cléft
clíng	clúng	clúng
clôthe	clôthed	clôthed	clád
còme	câme	còme
cóst	cóst	cóst
crêep	crépt	crépt
cút	cút	cút
dêal	déalt	déalt
díg	dúg	dúg
dîve	dîved (AmE also has dôve, cf. dòve bird)	dîved
do (*doô; -s form dòes)	díd	dòne
dråw	dreŵ	dråwn
drêam	dréamt, drêamed	dréamt, drêamed
drínk	dránk	drúnk	drúnken
drîve	drôve	dríven
dwéll	dwélt	dwélt
êat	âte AmE, BrE *ét	êaten
fåll	féll	fållen
fêed	féd	féd
fêel	félt	félt
fîght	fŏught	fŏught
fînd	fòund	fòund
flêe	fléd	fléd
flíng	flúng	flúng
flŷ (-s form flîes)	fleŵ	flôwn
forbéar	forbŏre	forbŏrne
forbíd	forbáde, forbâde, forbád	forbídden
forsâke	forsoòk	forsâken