Irregular verb inflections

Irregular verb inflections

The regular verbs of English use the -ed or -t inflection to form the past tense and past participle (eg ask  →  asked, deal  →  dealt). Irregular verbs do not. Many do not use any inflection for the past tense, but change the verb’s vowel. The vowel of the past participle is often different again, and often carries an -(e)n inflection.

break  →  broke/broken

[present tense  →  past tense/past participle] 

  Other irregular verbs to watch out for:

choose  →  chose/chosen     speak  →  spoke/spoken     steal  →  stole/stolen

drive  →  drove/driven     rise  →  rose/risen     write  →  wrote/written     

swear  →  swore/sworn     tear  →  tore/torn     wear  →  wore/worn     

blow  →  blew/blown     grow  →  grew/grown     know  →  knew/known 

begin  →  began/begun     sing  →  sang/sung     swim  →  swam/swum

Some irregular verbs use irregular inflections to form the past tense and past participle (eg the past tense and past participle of bring are both brought, not bringed).

Did you know?

Future time
English lacks a future tense that is built into the verb, like -ed for the past tense. It more than makes up for it with several alternative verb phrases to express future time.

He will come this weekend. [modal verb phrase]

He is going to come this weekend. [modal paraphrase]

He is coming this weekend. [present tense, continuous aspect]

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