Regular Verbs
For regular verbs, the simple past and the past participle is –ed:
wash ==> washed
paint ==> painted
whistle ==> whistled
bake ==> baked
snow ==> snowed
rain ==> rained
If a verb ends in a syllable with a short vowel sound and the final consonant is one letter, that letter is doubled:
tap ==> tapped
stop ==> stopped
pat ==> patted
drip ==> dripped
For verbs that end in a consonant followed by a y, the y is changed to i before adding the –ed:
study ==> studied
tidy ==> tidied
try ==> tried
Irregular Verbs
Irregular verbs do not follow this –ed pattern. They are exceptions, and must be memorized.
Sometimes, the simple past and the past participle of irregular verbs is the same:
make ==> made, made
find ==> found, found
buy ==> bought, bought
cut ==> cut, cut
think ==> thought
Sometimes, however, the simple past and the past participle are different:
write ==> wrote, written
break ==> broke, broken
eat ==> ate, eaten
sing ==> sang, sung
Here is a list of the 50 most common English irregular verbs:
say (said, said)
make (made, made)
go (went, gone)
take (took, taken)
come (came, come)
see (saw, seen)
know (knew, known)
get (got, got/gotten (US))
give (gave, given)
find (found, found)
think (thought, thought)
tell (told, told)
become (became, become)
show (showed, shown / showed)
leave (left, left)
feel (felt, felt)
put (put, put)
bring (brought, brought)
begin (began, begun)
keep (kept, kept)
hold (held, held)
write (wrote, written)
stand (stood, stood)
hear (heard, heard)
let (let, let)
mean (meant, meant)
set (set, set)
meet (met, met)
run (ran, run)
pay (paid, paid)
sit (sat, sat)
speak (spoke, spoken)
lie (lay, lain)
lead (led, led)
read (read, read)
grow (grew, grown)
lose (lost, lost)
fall (fell, fallen)
send (sent, sent)
build (built, built)
understand (understood, understood)
draw (drew, drawn)
break (broke, broken)
spend (spent, spent)
cut (cut, cut)
rise (rose, risen)
drive (drove, driven)
buy (bought, bought)
wear (wore, worn)
choose (chose, chosen)
Exercises: Complete the sentences. Choose an appropriate verb from the list and put it in its correct form.
Example:
The trees (sway) in the wind. ==> The trees swayed in the wind.
break
eat
fly
know
leave
make
play
see
sell
speak
strike
tell
throw
watch
1. The children __________ nicely together while the babysitter was watching them.
2. Have you ever __________ a real live lion before?
3. We can’t __________ the movie tonight – all the tickets are __________ out.
4. Several large branches have __________ off our tree because of the strong wind.
5. Dave __________ the cage door open, and now the bird has __________ out.
6. How long have you __________ Dr. Brock?
7. Tim __________ with me the other night and __________ me that he had gotten engaged!
8. The children haven’t __________ their beds yet.
9. The pitcher __________ a fast ball, and __________ out the batter.
10. Mike has __________ all his vegetables, so he’ll get a special treat for dessert.
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