Verbs - Regular and Irregular Verbs

On the basis of how a verb forms its past tense form and its past participle form, it can be classified as either regular or irregular.

Regular verbs

In the case of regular verbs, the past tense and the past participle are formed by adding ‘−ed’ to the root form of the verbs.

For example:

Root form	Past tense form	Past participle form
Accept	Accepted	Accepted
Complain	Complained	Complained
Rescue	Rescued	Rescued
Work	Worked	Worked
Visit	Visited	Visited
Taste	Tasted	Tasted
Fool	Fooled	Fooled
Increase	Increased	Increased
Decrease	Decreased	Decreased
Order	Ordered	Ordered

Irregular verbs

In the case of irregular verbs, three variations exist:

(i) When the root form, past tense form and past participle form are the same

For example:

Root form	Past tense form	Past participle form
Cut	Cut	Cut
Read	Read	Read
Hit	Hit	Hit
Shut	Shut	Shut
Hurt	Hurt	Hurt

(ii) When the root form, past tense form and past participle form are all different

For example:

Root form	Past tense form	Past participle form
Go	Went	Gone
Be	Was/Were	Been
Forget	Forgot	Forgotten
Sing	Sang	Sung
See	Saw	Seen

(iii) When two of the three forms are the same

For example:

Root form	Past tense form	Past participle form
Run	Ran	Run
Become	Became	Become
Beat	Beat	Beaten
Teach	Taught	Taught
Lose	Lost	Lost