Regular and irregular verbs
- Lists of verbs PDF + online
- Exercises PDF + online
English grammar books PDF
PDF book 1: English grammar exercises PDF
PDF book 2: English grammar rules PDF
Regular and irregular verbs exercises + PDF worksheets
PDF exercises to download for free:
Past simple
- Practise changes in spelling of regular forms.
Irregular verbs exercises PDF 2
- Practise the past simple forms.
Past simple + past participle
Irregular verbs exercises PDF 3
- 1. Complete sentences with words in brackets. 2. Correct mistakes.
Irregular verbs exercises PDF 4
- 1. Fill in the missing forms. 2. Complete sentences.
Online exercises with answers:
Past simple
- Complete sentences with regular and irregular verbs.
- Choose correct verbs from the list to complete sentences.
- Complete sentences with verbs in brackets.
Past simple + past participle
- Practise past simple and past participle forms.
Regular verbs lists with spelling changes
Irregular verbs lists
Basic irregular verbs list PDF
Full list of irregular verbs PDF
Regular verbs
1. The regular past tense in English is usually formed by -ed ending (work - worked, stay - stayed). It is the same for all persons, singular and plural: I started, you started, he started, we played, they played.
2. The regular past participle is the same. It is also formed by -ed ending (worked, stayed). It is used in perfect tenses and passive voice: I have started, you had started, he will have started, it was started.
3. There are, however, groups of regular verbs which change their spelling in the past tense and past participle (try - tried, chat - chatted...).
Read more: Regular verbs
Irregular verbs
English irregular verbs can have up to three different forms: the base form (go, draw), the past tense (went, drew) and the past participle (gone, drawn).
Past tense:
I went to work by bus yesterday.
You drew a beautiful picture at school.
He saw my car in the parking place.
We wrote the email before dinner.
Past participle:
I have gone to the shop three times today.
You have drawn a lot of pictures since the morning.
He has just seen my car.
We have already written the email.
There are basically four big groups of irregular verbs in English.
1. Verbs which have three different forms: do - did - done, write - wrote - written, sing - sang - sung.
2. Verbs which have a different base form, but the past tense and past participle are the same: build - built - built, dig - dug - dug, tell - told - told.
3. Verbs which have only one form: bet - bet - bet, cost - cost - cost, set - set - set.
4. Verbs which have both regular and irregular forms: dream - dreamed/dreamt - dreamed/dreamt, forecast - forecasted/forecast - forecasted/forecast, learn - learned/learnt - learned/learnt.
But the English irregular verbs are even more complicated. Apart from the above mentioned groups, there are some irregular verbs that do not fit to any of these groups.
Awake is irregular, but it can have a regular past tense form (awake - awaked/awoke - awaken).
Beat has the same base form and past tense, but the past participle is different (beat - beat - beaten).
Become has the same base form and past partiple, but the past tense is different (become - became - become).
Bid has two irregular forms in both the past tense and past participle (bid - bade/bid - bidden/bid).
Come (like 'become') has the same base form and past partiple, but the past tense is different (come - came - come).
Eat has two possible pronunciations in the past tense (eat - ate - eaten).
Forbid has two irregular forms only in the past tense (forbid - forbad/forbade - forbidden).
Hang is both a regular and irregular verb, but each form has a different meaning (I hung my coat in the hall. - They hanged him for murder.)
Lie is regular and irregular, but with a different meaning (I lied to my mum. - The book lay on the table.)
Read has only one form (read - read - read), but the base form has a different pronunciation.
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