Regular and Irregular Verbs

Verb Categories

Every verb is considered to be either Regular or Irregular, just as they can be either Transitive or Intransitive, Finite or Non-finite.

Regular Verbs

Most verbs are regular verbs: “-d” or “-ed” can be added to their base form to make both the past simple tense and past participle forms.

What is a base form of a verb?

— the original or unchanged form of the verb.

Examples of regular verbs:

treat, walk, jump, reach, appear, silence

See the table below:

Examples of Regular Verbs

There are the verbs create, walk, and move.

These verbs are regular verbs because when forming the past simple or past participle, they add either “-d” or “-ed” to their base form, as shown in the table.

In the past simple tense:

• create adds “-d” → created
• walk adds “-ed” → walked
• move adds “-ed” → moved

For the past participle form:

• create adds “-d” → created
• walk adds “-ed” → walked
• move adds “-ed” → moved

Irregular Verbs

Just like regular verbs, irregular verbs can be turned into simple past and past participles as well, but they change their forms and do not follow a fixed pattern. The endings “-d” or “-ed” cannot simply be added to them.

See the table below:

Watch how their forms alter. The changes are often incredibly unpredictable. That is how irregular verbs work. Each one needs to be thoroughly familiarized, and you must be aware of how to alter their forms correctly to fit a sentence.