Irregular Verbs In English: More Than 40 Powerful Examples

Irregular verbs are actually fairly common in the English language, and you will encounter them frequently. We suggest taking some time to read through the list of irregular verbs (below) and also to practice using them in sentences.

There are a few irregular verbs, in particular, that are used very frequently, so it is important to be familiar with them as soon as possible. Those most common irregular verbs – which happen to also be some of the most common words you will use in English – are the following (we have added the simple past form and the past participle form here to illustrate the changes): 

Common Irregular Verbs in English

• come (came, come)
• get (got, got)
• go (went, gone)
• know (knew, known)
• make (made, made)
• say (said, said)
• see (saw, seen) 
• take (took, taken)
• think (thought, thought)

Here are a few examples using these common irregular verbs, including an explanation of each: 

• Did you take the last box to the moving truck? 
• I took all the others already.
• We should have taken them all to the truck last night already.

→ Here the irregular verb “take” is in its base form in the first sentence. In the second sentence, we see it in its simple past form “took,” and in the third sentence, it is used in the past participle form “taken.”

• I need to go to the store this afternoon.
• I went to the farmer’s market in the morning, but the person who sells the best vegetables was already gone by the time I arrived.

→ Here the irregular verb “go” is in its base form in the first sentence. In the second sentence, we see it in its simple past form “went” and in the past participle form “gone.”

• I hear her say that she likes balloons a lot, so I said to Anthony that we should get some for the party this weekend.

→ Here the irregular verb “say” is in its base form in the first part of sentence, and in the simple past form “said” in the second part of the sentence.

• Do you know how to make a rocket? I’ve always wanted to try, but I have never made one.

→ Here the irregular verb “make” is in its base form in the first sentence. In the second sentence, we see it in its simple past form “made.”

• Let’s eat some of these cookies. I ate some last week and found them to be delicious. Hopefully, my brother hasn’t already eaten them all.

→ In this example, the irregular verb eat is in base form. “Ate” is the past simple form of “eat,” and found is the past simple form of “find.” In the third sentence, eat is used in the past participle form “eaten.”

Full Listing of Irregular Verbs

Below we have provided a list of all irregular verbs used in English. The table show the base (or bare infinitive) form, followed by the simple past form and the past participle form for each verb. Becoming familiar with this list will help as you learn to speak and write English more regularly. 

Base Form	Past Simple	Past Participle
arise	arose	arisen
awake	awoke	awoken
be	was/were	been
bear	bore	born(e)
beat	beat	beaten
become	became	become
begin	began	begun
bend	bent	bent
bet	bet	bet
bind	bound	bound
bite	bit	bitten
bleed	bled	bled
blow	blew	blown
break	broke	broken
breed	bred	bred
bring	brought	brought
broadcast	broadcast	broadcast
build	built	built
burn	burnt/burned	burnt/burned
burst	burst	burst
buy	bought	bought
can	could	been able
catch	caught	caught
choose	chose	chosen
cling	clung	clung
come	came	come
cost	cost	cost
creep	crept	crept
cut	cut	cut
deal	dealt	dealt
dig	dug	dug
do	did	done
draw	drew	drawn
dream	dreamt/dreamed	dreamt/dreamed
drink	drank	drunk
drive	drove	driven
eat	ate	eaten
fall	fell	fallen
feed	fed	fed
feel	felt	felt
fight	fought	fought
find	found	found
fly	flew	flown
forbid	forbade	forbidden
forget	forgot	forgotten
forgive	forgave	forgiven
freeze	froze	frozen
get	got	got
give	gave	given
go	went	gone
grind	ground	ground
grow	grew	grown
hang	hung	hung
have	had	had
hear	heard	heard
hide	hid	hidden
hit	hit	hit
hold	held	held
hurt	hurt	hurt
keep	kept	kept
kneel	knelt	knelt
know	knew	known
lay	laid	laid
lead	led	led
lean	leant/leaned	leant/leaned
learn	learnt/learned	learnt/learned
leave	left	left
lend	lent	lent
lie (in bed)	lay	lain
lie (to not tell the truth)	lied	lied
light	lit/lighted	lit/lighted
lose	lost	lost
make	made	made
may	might	might
mean	meant	meant
meet	met	met
mow	mowed	mown/mowed
must	had to	had to
overtake	overtook	overtaken
pay	paid	paid
put	put	put
read	read	read
ride	rode	ridden
ring	rang	rung
rise	rose	risen
run	ran	run
saw	sawed	sawn/sawed
say	said	said
see	saw	seen
sell	sold	sold
send	sent	sent
set	set	set
sew	sewed	sewn/sewed
shake	shook	shaken
shall	should	should
shed	shed	shed
shine	shone	shone
shoot	shot	shot
show	showed	shown
shrink	shrank	shrunk
shut	shut	shut
sing	sasangw	sung
sink	sank	sunk
sit	sat	sat
sleep	slept	slept
slide	slid	slid
smell	smelt	smelt
sow	sowed	sown/sowed
speak	spoke	spoken
spell	spelt/spelled	spelt/spelled
spend	spent	spent
spill	spilt/spilled	spilt/spilled
spit	spat	spat
spread	spread	spread
stand	stood	stood
steal	stole	stolen
stick	stuck	stung
stink	stank	stunk
strike	struck	struck
swear	swore	sworn
sweep	swept	swept
swell	swelled	swollen/swelled
swim	swam	swum
swing	swung	swung
take	took	taken
teach	taught	taught
tear	tore	torn
tell	told	told
think	thought	thought
throw	threw	thrown
understand	understood	understood
wake	woke	woken
wear	wore	worn
weep	wept	wept
will	would	would
win	won	won
wind	wound	wound
write	wrote	written