English irregular verbs

Regular verbs in English have three forms:

• the base, which is equivalent to the infinitive without 'to' and most forms of the present tense (for example, wait, to wait, I wait)
• the -s form, which is used for the third person singular of the present tense (he waits, she waits)
• the past form, which is used both for the past tense and the past participle, and which consists of adding -ed to the base, or, in the case of verbs ending in -e, -d only (I waited, she was waited on)

Irregular verbs have these forms, and form the -s form regularly: béars from béar. But many of them have past participles that differ from the past tense, as is the case with béar, bŏre, bŏrn (shê bŏre hím, hê was bŏrn). (The accents, which are not part of the language, are included to show stress and pronunciation: see English spellings for a table and English phonemes for the IPA. Words in italics suggest meaning, and an equals sign is placed between homophones.) Others have associated passive adjectives like súnken, from sínk, sánk, súnk (súnken chêeks) and as in såwn-óff shótgun and neŵ-môwn låwns, and these are included in cases where their form is different from the past participle. Not all forms are in common use: for example, people are still described as being behôlden to others, but the verb itself, behóld, meaning look at, is nowadays only used poetically or in jest.

Table of irregular verbs

base	past	past participle	past passive adjective
béãr birth	bŏre	bŏrn
béar suffered, carried	bŏre	bŏrne
bêat	bêat	bêaten
begín	begán	begún
behóld	behéld	behéld	behôlden
bénd	bént	bént
berêave	berêaved	berêaved	beréft
besêech	besŏught	besŏught
bíd auction	bíd	bíd
bíd ask	báde (= bád wrong)	bídden
bînd	bòund	bòund
bîte	bít	bítten
blêed	bléd	bléd
bléss	bléssed =	bléssed, blést, same pronunciation	bléssed, pronounced *bléssíd
blôw	bleŵ (= blûe colour)	blôwn
breâk	brôke	brôken
brêed	bréd	bréd
bríng	brŏught	brŏught
buíld	buílt	buílt
bürn	bürned, bürnt	bürnt, bürned
bürst	bürst	bürst
buy	bŏught	bŏught
cāst	cāst	cāst
cátch (-s form cátches)	cåught	cåught
chîde	chîded, chíd	chîded	chídden
choôse	chôse	chôsen
clêave	clôve	clôven	cléft
clíng	clúng	clúng
clôthe	clôthed	clôthed	clád