Learn English: What is an Irregular verb? Understand How to Conjugate Them

One of the tricky parts of the English language is irregular verbs. These are the words which do not follow the usual grammar rules. Many people find it difficult to understand how irregular verbs work, so in today’s Learn English series we will help you understand the definition of irregular verbs and how to conjugate them to represent the simple past and past participle forms of verbs.

Definition of Irregular Verbs:

An irregular verb is defined as a verb that does not follow the usual rules of grammar. It is not formed in the normal way and the normal way of forming past and past participle forms of a verb in English is by adding ‘ed’ to it. Irregular verbs do not follow this rule.

Example: ‘Eat’ is an irregular verb because its past tense is ‘ate’ and its past participle is ‘eaten’, not ‘eated’,”

Read | Learn English: Uses of the Verb ‘do’ in English, Know the Rules

Conjugating Irregular Verbs:

Learning to conjugate irregular verbs is a bit tricky, but you can get a better understanding of it by learning some examples.

The conjugation of irregular verbs can be learnt under three main groups based on how they behave when changed to represent the simple past and past participle forms:

1. Irregular Verbs with the Same Spelling across All Forms

Example 1:

Base Verb- Shut

Simple Past Form- Shut

Past Participle Form- Shut

Example 2:

Base Verb- Put

Simple Past Form- Put

Past Participle Form- Put

2. Irregular Verbs with the Same Simple Past Form and Past Participle Form

Example 1:

Base Verb- Find

Simple Past Form- Found

Past Participle Form- Found

Example 2:

Base Verb- Make

Simple Past Form- Made

Past Participle Form- Made

3. Irregular Verbs with Completely Different Spellings for Each Form

Example 1:

Base Verb- Drink

Simple Past Form- Drank

Past Participle Form- Drunk

Example 2:

Base Verb- Give

Simple Past Form- Gave

Past Participle Form- Given

There are a number of examples in the English language that can help you understand irregular verbs and how to conjugate them. You can go through them and it will definitely help you improve your communication skills.

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