Swim is a regular or irregular verb. Irregular verbs. Irregular Verbs. What does "irregular verbs" mean?

The concept of “irregular verbs” when studying in English arises almost simultaneously with the beginning of a detailed study of times. The division into regular and irregular verbs in English becomes important when it becomes necessary to put the verb into the second or third form in accordance with at the right time. It is the form the verb takes in these forms that determines whether it is classified as correct or incorrect.

You can continue reading or watch the animated video, in which we tried to convey the main content of the article in 5 minutes. Once you've finished watching, be sure to follow through to assess your knowledge.

Verbs of the “regular” category have the same second and third forms; they differ from the first form only in the ending -ed.

But the irregular verbs of the English language are a special group that requires much more attention and time. The difficulty is that the methods of forming the second and third forms of these verbs defy either logic or rules:

• some of them do not change shape at all;

  cut - cut - cut (cut)

• some have the same second and third forms;

  have - had - had (to have)

• and there are also irregular verbs in English in which all three forms are different.

  do - did - done (to do)

Irregular verbs in English are like the multiplication tables in mathematics: learning by heart is long and troublesome, but it is worth it, since the enormous practical importance of both cannot be overestimated. In particular, knowledge of the forms of irregular verbs significantly expands language capabilities.

The total number of irregular verbs is about 500 (and these are not only commonly used, but also already outdated variants). If we talk about useful verbs that can be useful in modern conditions, then you will need only 220 - 250 units from the total, i.e. literally half.

According to some linguists, knowing the entire table of irregular verbs increases your language proficiency by as much as 5%!

English irregular verbs are a ready-made set of words that are guaranteed to cover most actions from all major conversational topics.

How to distinguish regular verbs from irregular ones?

Unfortunately, since the second and third forms of irregular verbs are formed unpredictably, you will have to literally recognize them “by sight.”

All students who study English should have a table of irregular verbs. English irregular verbs with transcription and translation can be found in any, even the most primitive, textbook (usually their table is located at the end of the publication).

It is important to remember the spelling and pronunciation of the three forms of each verb in the table. That is, if the verb is irregular, you need to learn not one word, as usual, but three at once.

The table of irregular verbs in the English language is a guideline against which we will have to check for some time whether we have the correct verb in front of us or not.

As a rule, the main irregular verbs in English are the most used in speech, texts and exercises. Gradually, the forms of irregular verbs in English are remembered, and the table comes in handy less and less.

Modern English is predisposed to simplifying complex grammatical structures, and this also applies to irregular verbs. The forms of irregular verbs in English change over time and gradually tend to be “correct.” Sometimes a verb can be used both as regular and irregular. For example:

study - learn-learnt (learned) - learnt (learned)).

In ambiguous cases, exceptions, our recommendation will be the following: if in any doubt, it is better to consult the Oxford dictionary. This publication is considered by linguists to be a kind of “code” regulating the use of a particular lexeme. Modern editions of this book include not only traditional versions, but also most Americanized versions irregular shapes verbs.

Where are the forms of irregular verbs used?

So, now let's move on to the most important thing: let's take a closer look at the three verb forms and their participation in English grammar:

First- this is perhaps the simplest variation - infinitive. Used:

• usually as an indefinite form;
• when using time Present Simple, and in the 3rd person singular the verb receives the ending -s (for example, runs, goes).

Second- speaks in the simplest and most understandable speech situations: when using Past Simple tense.

Third- past participle ( Past Participle or Participle II). There are three main options when it is used:

• as a direct past participle;
• as part of the construction of time Present Perfect;
• in the formation of all forms of the passive voice.

As we see, almost all aspectual and tense forms of the English language are “tied” to one form or another of verbs. Therefore, any form of the verb is important in constructing literate speech.

Learning English irregular verbs

Depending on your level of knowledge, we offer two ways to study this topic. The first is to start learning the 100 most popular irregular verbs right now using our table, which you will find just below. The second way is to study verbs while doing an online exercise.

This method is also suitable for those who learned English before, for example at school or college, but have now forgotten. The exercise will help you remember all three forms of the verb as much as possible. You can also return to the exercise after studying the table and check your acquired knowledge.

table of irregular verbs

We bring to your attention irregular verbs of the English language with translation in the form of a table. In it you can also listen to the pronunciation of verbs.

For each lexeme, only one main translation option is presented. Although, it should be remembered that the more often a word is found in everyday speech, the more meanings it usually has. For example, the word “get” can express up to 80 different actions.

The table contains the most commonly used verbs that require memorization. In the future, use them in sentences to express your thoughts grammatically in English.

Online exercise for memorizing irregular verbs

Indicate three forms of the verb in sequence, choosing a card with a word from the proposed options.

• choose
• chose
• chosen

• creep
• crept
• crept

• drink
• drank
• drunk

• drive
• drove
• driven

• fallen

• found
• found

• forgive
• forgave
• forgiven

• grown

• known

• leave

• showed
• shown

• speak
• spoke
• spoken

• stand
• stood
• stood

• taken

• teach
• taught
• taught

• understand
• understood
• understood

• write
• wrote
• written

Irregular verbs in English have 3 forms. The first is the infinitive or initial form (as the word is written in the dictionary), the second is used to form the Past Simple tense, and the third is the past participle (used to form Perfect tenses, passive voice and some other forms).

Students often wonder: how many irregular verbs are there in English? Various educational resources provide different variants, and sometimes the lists reach a thousand words! But don’t be alarmed: there are about two hundred basic verbs, and it’s absolutely possible to learn them, and the number of words often increases due to the fact that words with the same stems are included in the list. For example, the verb “to do”: make – made – made and the verb “to remake”: remake – remade – remade are often considered separate words, although the prefix “re” is simply added.

Verbs can be taught simply in alphabetical order, or they can be divided into several groups based on the formation of the second and third forms, which are similar for many verbs. Below are verbs divided according to this principle.

Unchangeable verbs:

Verbs with the same second and third forms

Verbs with matching second and third forms ending in -t

Verbs starting with –ught

Verbs changing -d to -t

Verbs with vowel change: i – a – u

Verbs with the same first and third forms

Verbs with a double consonant in the third form

Verbs with a short vowel in the second and third forms

Verbs with -e- in the second form and third form with -wn

Verbs with the third form ending in –en

Verb- this is an independent part of speech that answers the questions what to do?, what to do? (to be, to study, to dream, to go...)

According to the method of formation of past tense forms (V2) and past participles (V3), all verbs of the English language are divided into 2 groups: regular verbs (Regular Verbs) and irregular verbs (Irregular verbs).

The English verb has three forms. Verb forms are designated by Roman numerals I, II, III.

I form(or an infinitive without to), for example: to make (to do) – make – the first, or main form, which answers the question what to do?, what to do? Using the first form of the verb, the Simple Present tense is formed (Present Simple Tense). At education Present Simple Tense to the I form of the verb in the 3rd person singular(he, she, it – he, she, it) the ending is added –s or -es(he jumpes, she jumpes, it jumpes, he cries, she cries, it cries, he does, she does, it does) . With other pronouns (I, we, you, you, they - I, we, you, you, they) the I form of the verb is used without changes.

II form serves to form the simple past tense (Past Simple Tense). When forming the simple past tense, both regular and irregular verbs are used. Regular verbs form II and III forms by adding a suffix to the stem I form –ed(jump – jumped – jump – jumped) . If the verb is not regular, then its past tense form corresponds to the second column in the table of irregular verbs (be – was/were, do – did, make – made).

III form- Participle II (Participle II) is a special form of the verb that denotes the attribute of an object by action and answers the questions of the adjective (lost, baked, made). For regular verbs, form III coincides with form II: jump (I) – jumped (II) – jumped (III) (jump – jumped – jumped). II and III forms of irregular verbs can be formed different ways listed below.

Regular verbs

Regular verbs form II and III forms by adding a suffix to the stem I form -ed (-d), which is pronounced like:

• [ d] after vowels and voiced consonants: to clean (clean) – cleaned (cleaned); to play (play) - played (played);
• [ t] after the deaf ones: to work (work) – worked (worked), to look (look) – looked (looked);
• after [d] And [t]: to want (want) – wanted (wanted), to mend (repair) – mended (repaired).

When forming II and III forms of verbs, pay attention to the following spelling rules:

• If the I form is a short root syllable and ends with one consonant, then when adding the ending –ed the last vowel of the root is doubled: to stop (stop) – sto pped(has stopped).
• -y, preceded by a consonant, the letter y changes to i: to carry (carry) - carried (carried), to study (study) - studied (studied). But if the stem of the verb ends in -y, preceded by a vowel, then simply adds to the base of the verb - ed: to play (play) – played (played), to stay (stay) – remained (remained).
• If the stem of the verb ends in -e, which is not pronounced, then II and III forms of the verb are formed by adding the ending - d: to arrive (arrive) – arrived (arrived).

Irregular Verbs

Irregular Verbs- these are verbs that have special, fixed forms of the past tense and participles; their forms do not have a clear formation algorithm and are acquired by memorizing: to make (to do) - made (made) - made (made). Most English irregular verbs are native English, derived from verbs that existed in Old English. Most irregular verbs exist as remnants of historical conjugation systems (changing the verb according to persons - I'm going, you're going, he's going...).

Irregular verbs are used to form the past simple (Past Simple), present perfect (Present Simple), past perfect (Past Perfect), in the passive voice ( Passive voice), when converting direct speech into indirect (Reported speech), into conditional sentences(Conditional sentences).

table of irregular verbs

How to remember forms of irregular verbs?

The main difficulty with English verbs is that in English there is no rule by which they are formed. past form. And worse than that, there is no logic in her education.

To use these verbs in the past tense, you need to memorize them. Moreover, many irregular verbs have two different past tense forms. To do this, you will need constant practice, which you can get in English courses for adults from Easy Speak.

Since you will come across the concepts of “verb forms” more than once when using irregular verbs, in this article we will look at what they are.

What are the forms of English verbs?

A verb is an action that someone/something does. For example: lie down, run, jump, swim.

All English verbs divided into correct and incorrect. Knowing whether a verb is regular or irregular is necessary in order to use it in the past tense.

In Russian we add "l" at the end to put the verb in the past tense.

Present time: reading, writing, walking, swimming.

Past tense: read, wrote, walked, swam.

In English, some verbs are formed according to rules, while others are not. I think you've already guessed that this is the difference between regular and irregular verbs.

Regular verbs in English- these are those verbs whose past form is formed according to the rules by adding the ending -ed.

For example

work - worked,
work - worked.

Irregular verbs in English- these are verbs whose past form is not formed according to the rules. At the same time, there is no logic in its education.

For example

buy - bought,
buy - bought.

One of the main difficulties for students is that there is no rule by which one can determine whether a verb is regular or irregular. You can find out only by looking it up in the dictionary or memorizing it.

Verb form is how the verb changes depending on the time it is used.

Both regular and irregular verbs have 3 forms.

Verb forms in English

All verbs have 3 forms.

First form verb- this is the verb itself in the present tense, in the initial form.

For example

(to) work - to work,
(to) do - to do,
(to) buy - buy.

Second form verb is a verb in the past tense (this form is used in all simple past tenses).

worked - worked,
did - did,
bought - bought.

Third form of the verb is a verb in the past tense, which also carries the characteristics of an object (this form is used in the tenses of the Perfect group).

worked - worked,
done - done,
bought - bought.

Note: Of course, when using the 3rd form in our speech, we do not translate it literally, but translate it in the usual past tense.

For example

I have done my homework.
I did homework(Literally: I did my homework).

How are English verb forms formed?

In regular verbs, both forms of the past tense are formed according to the same rule, so attention is usually not focused on them.

To form the 2nd and 3rd forms, we add the ending -ed to the verb.

Work - worked - worked.

For irregular verbs, the 2nd and 3rd forms can:

• coincide with each other.

Have-had-had,
have - had.

• differ.

Do - did - done,
do - did.

This is precisely the complexity of irregular verbs. To use all 3 forms correctly, you need to memorize them.

Let's look again at the table of formation of 3 forms of verbs.

Table of verb forms in English.

In the article, we looked at the most popular ways to memorize irregular verbs and chose the most effective one.

What is there that no rule can do without? Of course, no exceptions! Irregular verbs in the English language are also not spared. But, as they say, an irregular verb is not as scary as it is painted to be. Today we will deal with different methods memorizing irregular verbs.

Let's open any table of irregular verbs ( see at the end of the article), and you will see three columns there. The first column presents verbs in the impersonal, or (only without the particle to). This is what corresponds to Russian verbs ending in -т: draw, write, read – (to) draw, write, read.

The second column is - drew, wrote, read (yesterday, for example) - drew, wrote, read.

In the third column is the so-called second participle, or past participle.

Note The first participle corresponds to the Russian -yushchy/-yayushchy: drawing, writing, reading. In English, the first participle ends in –ing. – drawing, writing, rading.

Let's return to the third column, which represents the past participle - it corresponds to the Russian “made” - drawn, written, read. Third column for

• verbs in .

• perfect tense verbs:

I have already written my essay. I have already written an essay (or “I already have my essay written”).

I have read three books this month. I read three books this month. (Or I have three books read).

Have you ever drawn anything like that? Have you ever drawn anything like this? (Or have you ever had something like this drawn?)

What does "irregular verbs" mean?

Why are irregular verbs still “irregular”? The fact is that according to the rules, the so-called second and third forms are constructed by adding the ending –ed.

I work – I worked yesterday. – I have worked for three companies.

In irregular verbs, the second and third forms are formed in a completely individual way (go – went – ​​gone), or do not change at all (put-put-put).

Methods of memorization

• Alphabetically - cram. Boring and useless.
• Make cards with three shapes on one side and a translation on the other. Periodically, when you have a minute (in transport, in the morning over a cup of coffee, etc.), go through the cards, checking yourself. If you remember, we put it in the second pile; if not, we leave it in the first and come back later. And so on until there is confident memorization. When you go through the cards, try to come up with examples - this also activates imaginative thinking, it’s easier to remember, and words are learned not separately, but in context.
• Poems. More like a child's way. But in whom does not a child live?? If you like it and evoke positive emotions, then why not? Here are examples of such poems

I'm at the buffet buy-bought-bought (buy)
First class sandwich
For him I pay-paid-paid, (pay)
In the classroom, on the desk lay-laid-laid (put)
And not at all think-thought-thought, (think)
That his neighbor will make him smarter.
And now I'm very sad -
Smell-smelt-smelt it’s very tasty! (smell)

Look, Screwtape's slingshot
Put-put-put (put) in your pocket
And begin-began-begun (begin)
Bully bully!
He's a pillow cut-cut-cut, (cut)
Brother in the bathroom shut-shut-shut, (close)
All newspapers are light-lit-lit, (set on fire)
Hit-hit-hit dog. (beat)
He ring-rang-rung (call) the neighbor
And, of course, run-ran-run. (run)
And not at all think-thought-thought, (think)
That the police will come.

Dig-dug-dug we are a vegetable garden, (dig)
Come-came-come there people. (come)
We said: “Go-went-gone, (go, leave)
This is not a farce for you.”

We fight-fought-fought with our enemies, (fight, fight)
They are caught in a catch-caught-caught trap. (catch, catch)
Day bring-brought-brought good luck, (bring)
We get-got-got reward. (receive)

If the hares bite-bit-bitten, (bite)
Don't give them eat-ate-eaten, (eat)
They will soon learn-learnt-learnt (learn)
Dashing matches burn-burnt-burnt. (spark off)

If a friend meet-met-met, (meet)
Keep him tight-kept-kept. (hold)
Well, what if lose-lost-lost, (to lose)
That's why it's cost-cost-cost. (cost)

Airplanes fly-flow-flown. (fly)
Our children are grow-grew-grown. (grow)
Well, the wind blow-blew-blown, (blow)
He knows-knew-known about everything. (know)

Grandfather and grandmother find-found-found (to find)
Basset hound dog.
Very close to old people
The dog become-became-become. (become)
Give-gave-given grandfather to him (give)
Dear basturma -
The dog needs to be fed-fed-fed (feed)
Something tasty for lunch!
Salad and cutlets for yourself
Old people don't let-let-let. (let)
Today grandmother and grandfather
Another life lead-led-led: (lead)
Grandfather dozes in the bath with a smile,
Grandmother dwell-dwelt-dwelt in the closet, (dwell)
Dog in bed lie-lay-lain, (lie down)
Just like Saddam Hussein.

We are break-broken-broken an old house– (break)
It was very boring there.
New house we draw-drew-draw, (draw)
Build-built-built – and we’ll live. (build)

• I like the idea of ​​classifying irregular verbs into groups based on the similarity of formation of the second and third forms. This way it is much easier to teach them.

Table of irregular verbs in English:

Group 1 – all three forms are the same

Group 2 – the second and third forms coincide

Group 3 – the second and third forms do not match

• To make the process of memorizing irregular verbs more fun, my students and I make up stories together. That is, one person takes out a card, remembers all the forms and meanings, and then writes a sentence using the second or third form. The next one takes out the second card and continues the story. As a rule, it turns out very funny. And bright positive emotions, especially laughter, are known to promote memory.

Don’t put it off for a long time - it’s better to cut some leaves right now, make cards - and go ahead! And find an accomplice to make up stories.