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lie or lay?
Verbs are considered regular if the past and past participle — which you use to construct various tenses — are formed by simply adding -d or -ed to the base of the verb. Below are several regular verbs.
| Base Form | Past Tense | Past Participle |
| smile | smiled | smiled |
| accept | accepted | accepted |
| manage | managed | managed |
Unfortunately, the most common verbs in English are irregular. The following chart lists some of them. When in doubt about the proper form of a verb, check a dictionary.
| Base Form | Past Tense | Past Participle |
| be | was, were | been |
| become | became | become |
| break | broke | broken |
| buy | bought | bought |
| choose | chose | chosen |
| come | came | come |
| dive | dived, dove | dived |
| do | did | done |
| drink | drank | drunk |
| drive | drove | driven |
| eat | ate | eaten |
| get | got | gotten |
| give | gave | given |
| go | went | gone |
| have | had | had |
| lay (to put or place) | laid | laid |
| lie (to recline) | lay | lain |
| ride | rode | ridden |
| ring | rang, rung | rung |
| rise | rose | risen |
| see | saw | seen |
| set | set | set |
| shine | shone, shined | shone, shined |
| sing | sang, sung | sung |
| sink | sank, sunk | sunk |
| speak | spoke | spoken |
| swear | swore | sworn |
| throw | threw | thrown |
| wake | woke, waked | woken, waked |
| write | wrote | written |