Irregular verbs

Except for the verb be, all main verbs in English have five forms. The following list shows the five forms for the regular verb walk and the irregular verb ride.

Base form: walk, ride

Example sentences: Usually I walk. Sometimes I ride.

Past tense: walked, rode

Example sentences: Yesterday I walked. The day before I rode.

Past participle: walked, ridden

Example sentences: I have walked many times before. I had ridden only a few times before this week.

Present participle: walking, riding

Example sentences: I am walking right now. I will be riding whenever it rains.

-s form: walks, rides

Example sentences: She walks regularly. The boy rides often.

For regular verbs, both the past-tense and past-participle forms end in -ed or -d: walked, walked. For irregular verbs, the past tense and past participle are formed differently for each verb: rode, ridden; began, begun.

Common irregular verbs

Exercise: Irregular verbs 1

Exercise: Irregular verbs 2

Exercise: Irregular verbs 3