[ Previous ] [ Top Page ] [ Next ]

 Quest for
Regular Irregularity in English Verbs
Making the learning of irregular verb patterns into sheer poetry

Page Contents

Phonetic Fonts      Introduction      General Overview of Verb Inflections

151 Irregular English Verbs Categorized in 26 Identifiable Conjugations

Isolated Cases — 42 Completely Irregular Verbs      Abbreviations Used

To view this page correctly in Microsoft Internet Explorer and Google Chrome (sadly not Mozilla Firefox or Apple Safari), you'll first need to install the pronunciation symbols of the International Phonetics Association (IPA) on your computer. The IPA-SAM Manuscript and Sophia TrueType^® fonts used are made available free of charge by the Department of Phonetics and Linguistics at University College London (UCL).

Introduction

Background & Objectives

English belongs to the Germanic group of languages descended from Proto-Indo-European. One of the characteristic features of Old Germanic was its utilization of root vowel inflections to indicate changes in verb tense. While modern English makes use of a simpler suffixing system (e.g. call-ed, phone-d, etc.), verbs with irregular vowel inflections still survive for many of the oldest and most basic activities known to man, such as eating, drinking, sleeping, sitting, standing or swimming. This means that even the most elementary of students soon have to get down to the nitty-gritty of committing them to memory and I would very much like to facilitate this process.

Unfortunately, since English orthography has undergone comparatively few reforms in the last 500 years, it fails to reflect the sometimes inconsistent developments in educated pronunciation that have taken place over the same period. Both mono- phthongal and diphthongal root vowel shifts have endowed modern English with a far greater variety of irregular verb inflections than one finds in other Germanic languages. The verb conjugational patterns of, for example, German or Swedish seem to be much more easily categorized and memorized than those of English. As a consequence, and much to the frustration of overseas learners, most English dictionaries and grammar books seem content merely to provide lengthy alphabetical listings of irregular verbs in an appendix at the back. Surprisingly few attempts appear to have been made to group together verbs of clearly common conjugation for faster and more effective memorization.

This is the gap I have set out to fill with this short survey, the results of which are a little surprising. In spite of the fact that we at the end of my analysis are left with 42 irregular verbs displaying seemingly unique pronunciation patterns, more than 150 others have actually been found to be in good company with other verbs. This means they can be remembered almost as effectively as a nursery rhyme.
 

Layout

From left to right in the tables the verbs are shown in their infinitive/present, simple past and past-participle forms. In those cases where more than one past tense form is presented, the one in brackets is generally less common, especially if it is shown in italics. Literary and archaic forms, included here to provide a historical perspective, are always indicated in thin italicised text.

Sometimes a variant has one specific application (e.g. the nautical hove instead of everyday heaved), and so caution is advised and the student should refer to a dictionary for further details. Here such variants are shown in bright red.

In cases where one irregular verb also forms the root in another (e.g. give in forgive), usually only the basic verb is included here, unless there happens to be an accepted past-tense variant for the derivative (e.g. cast and forecast/forecasted). The phonetic symbols used here represent the British English RP or received pronunciation standard which, for example, is spoken by BBC World Service newsreaders or members of the Royal Family.

This survey of regular irregularity in English verbs does not in any way claim to be complete. Rather it should be seen as an attempt to break with tradition in order to facilitate more rapid memorization of irregular verbs in English. This I hope will be to the benefit of students around the world. 

David Appleyard

General Overview of Identified Verb Inflections

Click here if you prefer a traditional style, alphabetical listing of irregular verbs!

In pretty good company!

Conjugation 1

Conjugation 2

General Overview of Verb Inflections

General Overview of Verb Inflections

General Overview of Verb Inflections

General Overview of Verb Inflections

General Overview of Verb Inflections

General Overview of Verb Inflections

General Overview of Verb Inflections

General Overview of Verb Inflections

General Overview of Verb Inflections

Isolated Cases — 42 unique verbs with truly irregular irregularity!  

Abbreviations Used

adj. adjectival form
AmE American English variant
** Modal auxiliary verb with no infinitive form (to...)
(!) Word not used in polite conversation!

[ Previous ] [ Top Page ] [ Next ]