Regular verbs (Regular verbs) are verbs that have forms past tense And participleII formed by the same rule: by simply adding the ending - ed To basic form of a given verb (this is how they differ from those in which these forms can be formed different ways). For example:

love – loved – loved.
roll – rolled – rolled.

That is, love is the basic form, loved is the past tense, or participle II. Most of the verbs in English language are regular verbs.

All verbs in English (including not regular verbs and be, do, have) have 5 forms. We will talk a little about all of them, but for a start it is enough to know what is basic form (or 1st form) as well as forms past tense(or 2nd form) and participleII(or 3rd form), that is, those forms that determine correct verbs.

Basic form

Basic form/Present form (base form or Present Form or Infinitive without particle to or dictionary form) - a simple notation of verbs, as they look in dictionaries. It is to it that they add, for example, the ending - ed, if they want to form time (thereby the verb acquires the 2nd form), but this form can also be used independently, most often in time:

I love what I do.
I love what I do.

I call her every day.
I call her every day.

Sometimes the form of the verb with the ending - s, which is used only with the pronouns OH (He), SHE (She), IT (It). Examples:

She/He/It loves him
She/He/It loves him

He/She/It calls me every day.
He/She/It calls me every day.

Past tense form

Past tense form (past simple or Past Indefinite or 2nd form of regular verb) - the form formed with the help of the ending - ed by adding it to the base form. Used for education simple time. It is a defining form, that is, this form is found only in regular verbs (but there are rare exceptions).

He loved her.
He loved her.

She killed him.
She killed him.

Past participle form

Past participle form / Participle II (Past Participle or Participle II) - looks and is formed in regular verbs the same as the 2nd form (which simplifies our lives), but is used to form all three time groups (present, past and future). It is the defining form of regular verbs.

He isloved.
He (is) loved.

He was loved.
He was loved.

He will be loved.
He will be loved.

ed the ending becomes as a subject (definition / object or person experiencing the result of a certain action):

paint – painted.
to paint - painted.

A killed soldier
Killed soldier.

Infinitive

Infinitive (Infinitive or Infinitive) - the same as the base form of the verb, but with the particle to in front of her - for this reason she received the name of the infinitive. This form is formed in all verbs in the same way (including be, do, have).

You can talk about the infinitive for a long time, the main thing that will be useful for us to know is the simple form of the word with the particle " TO", which tells us that given word denotes an action (that is, a verb). Particle" TO"in Russian is always translated as" TH".

An image for clarity: a man is walking along the street, and in order to name what he is doing, we will say - in Russian it is called " WALK"but an American will say - it's called" TO GO". The same can be said about the verb be: " TO BE" is just a designation/name of the action " BE"and it can be said no different from a simple" BE", unless, of course, we do not consider that the infinitive Not used in speech, otherwise it would look like this - I walk today to a friend ... but still in some cases it is appropriate:

I like to play.
I love play.

I want to open any interesting book.
I want open some interesting book.

It is very simple to determine this case (whether an infinitive is needed or not) - translate this sentence into Russian.

The main thing to remember is that this form is neutral and simply means an action, it does not describe any time period and does not indicate the person who performs this action. In other words, the infinitive is not used in any particular period of time, but is mainly used to indicate the name of an action. Also associate the particle "TO" with the Russian "Т" at the end of the verb, which in English is placed before the verb.

Present participle

Present participle form / Participle I (Present Participle or Participle I or Gerund) - is formed with the help of the ending - ing by adding it to the base form of the verb. Most often, participle I is used to form forms continued time (for example, ). This form looks the same for all verbs (including irregular and be, do, have).

He is touching a book.
He touches the book.

He was touching a book.
He touched the book.

Please note that in most cases the verb with - ing ending becomes a noun:

smoke – smoking.
smoking - smoking.

run – running.
run - run.

The value of the acquired knowledge

Perhaps you will say: "Yes, everything is very interesting, but ... why do I need to know this?". Well, at least in order to understand what the names Infinitive, Participle and so on mean in tables designed for memorizing regular and verbs.

Often they are written as follows: Infinitive (or Present), Past Simple (or Indefinite), Past Participle (or Participle II) and then verbs with this form go below them. An example of a table of common regular verbs:

Our topic today is an acquaintance with such an interesting phenomenon as the forms of irregular verbs. As you know, the English language is very cunning. This language often lays all sorts of traps for us. One of them is irregular verbs. English is not the only language that has irregular verbs. French also rich in irregular verbs. Three or four forms for irregular English verbs?

Romanian language, German, Latin language, Greek language also contains irregular verbs. And even the Russian language is replete with them. I think you have repeatedly heard about irregular verbs in English, in other words, Irregular Verbs. Why are such verbs called irregular? Everything is very simple: in the past tense they are conjugated in their own way, have their own special form, while all other verbs in the past tense have the ending -ed.

How to distinguish irregular verbs from regular ones?

For comparison, let's conjugate 3 regular regular verbs in the simple past tense (Past Simple):

As you can see, all 3 verbs are conjugated in the same way, according to the scheme stem + ending -ed.

The situation is quite different in the case of irregular verbs. We conjugate 3 more verbs in the simple past tense (Past Simple), which are incorrect, and here pay attention to the fact that each of these verbs has its own, completely different form at the end or even at the root of the word:

Even to the naked eye it is clear that each of these verbs appeared in its own, completely different from the others, form. The catch is that there is no specific rule by which you can find out the form of an irregular verb. Each of them hides in their own way. The English language, friends, is full of tricky things and underwater reefs. Another catch is that each irregular verb has not one form, but three.

Three forms of irregular verbs

So what are these three forms?

• The first is the infinitive or initial (indefinite) form of the verb
• The second is Past Participle I, that is, the form that corresponds to the simple past tense (Past Simple), it is also used in the 2nd and 3rd cases of the conditional mood (Conditional of the 2-d and of the 3-d case)
• The third is Past Participle II, the one that is used in the perfect present tense (Present Perfect) and in the past tense (Past Perfect). The same form is used in the passive voice (Passive Voice), in conditional mood 3rd case (Conditional of the 3-d case) and some other grammar rules.

Here are some examples of 3 forms of irregular verbs:

• To arise - arose - arisen - rise
• To be - was, were - been - to be
• To bear - bore - born - give birth
• To become - became - become - become, become
• To begin - began - begun - begin
• To catch - caught - caught - catch, catch
• To choose - chose - chosen - choose
• To dig - dug - dug - dig, dig
• To dream - dream - dream - dream, dream
• To feel - felt - felt - feel
• To forget - forgot - forgotten - forget
• To have - had - had - to have

Now let's look at these 3 forms using examples of sentences in all of the above tenses of verbs.

• So, the simple past tense of the verb (Past Simple Tense):

Yesterday she felt(self-bad) to feel). She felt bad yesterday. Last Wednesday we met Jim ( to meet). We met Jim last Wednesday. Last night I dream you ( to dream). “I dreamed about you last night. I was in Paris last year ( to be) — I was in Paris last year.

• Perfect present tense of the verb (Present Perfect Tense):

I have just seen him ( to see). “I just saw him. Tom has already brought my books ( to bring). Tom has already brought my books. Have you ever been in London to be)? - Have you ever been in London? Ann has already forgotten her boy-friend( to forget).- Anna has already forgotten her boyfriend.

• The past tense of the verb (Past Perfect Tense):

I noticed that I had forgotten my keys( to forget). — I noticed that I forgot my keys. He understood that he had lost his documents ( to lose). He realized that he had lost his papers.

• Passive voice (Passive Voice):

The dog is fed by me ( to feed). The dog is fed by me (I fed the dog). Made in France ( to make). - Made in France.

• Conditional mood of the 2nd and 3rd cases (Conditional). Here are the second and third forms:

If I had money, I would buy a car to have). - If I had money, I would buy a car (real condition). If I had money, I would have bought a car ( to have, to buy).- If I had money, I would buy a car (unreal condition, past tense).
How to learn all forms of irregular verbs?

Irregular Verbs Cheat Sheet

As mentioned above, there are no rules by which the forms of irregular verbs are formed, each has its own. But, we hope that this poetic form will help you quickly remember such irregular verbs:

To write-wrote-written
To eat-ate-eat
To speak-spoke-spoken
To break-broke-broken

To come-came-come
To become-became-become
To run-run-run
To swim swam swum

To know-knew-known
To throw-threw-thrown
To blow-blew-blown
To fly-flew-flown

Tossing-sang-sung
To ring-rang-rung
To hide-hid-hidden
To bite-bit-bitten

To send-sent-sent
To spend-spent-spent
To sleep-slept-slept
To keep-kept-kept

To tell-told-told
To sell-sold-sold
To teach-taught-taught
To catch-caught-caught

To fight-fought-fought
To think-thought-thought
To buy-bought-bought
To bring-brought-brought

To cut-cut-cut
To shut-shut-shut
To cost-cost-cost
To lose-lost-lost

To lead-led-led
To feed-fed-fed
To feel-felt-felt
To hold-held-held

From this funny poetic form, we see that some irregular verbs have the same letter combinations, which allows them to rhyme and thus make it easier for us to memorize them.

The "fourth" form of irregular verbs

There is a popular belief that there is also a 4th form of irregular verbs. This 4th configuration is formed according to the scheme base + ending -ing. It defines the Present Participle, that is, the present participle in tenses such as the present continuous (Present Continuous) and the past continuous (Past Continuous). In other words, this is the present and past tense of the imperfect form. It follows from this that there are not 3, but 4 forms of irregular verbs. But this 4th configuration is, as it were, unofficial.

Consider this same 4th form using examples of sentences with Present Continuous:

The same 4th form in sentences with Past Continuous.

Here you can find a table of irregular English verbs with translation into Russian and transcription, videos on learning and memorizing irregular verbs, links.

In English, there is a special category of verbs that does not follow the generally accepted rules when forming the past participle. They are called "wrong". Unlike “regular” verbs, to which the ending –ed is added to form the past participle, these verbs either remain unchanged or take unusual forms that are not always easy to remember. For example:

put - put - put;
drive - driven - driven.

If the first verb is easy to learn and use in sentences, then the second has to be learned directly by memorization.

Where did such difficulties with some verbs come from? Scientists have come to the conclusion that these are some kind of "fossils" that have remained in the language since ancient times. During its development, the English language has a large number of words from other European languages, but some words remained unchanged. Irregular verbs fall into this category.

Table of irregular English verbs:

Video on learning and memorizing irregular English verbs:

Top 100 irregular verbs in English.

In this video, the author analyzes the most popular irregular verbs in English (top 100 compiled by himself). Examples are given for all irregular verbs, voice acting, etc. The most used irregular verbs come first, followed by the less used ones.

Pronunciation of irregular English verbs.

British Irregular English Verbs. The author makes it possible to repeat after him and thus hone the correct pronunciation of irregular verbs.

Learning irregular English verbs with the help of rap.

An interesting video for learning irregular English verbs superimposed on rap.

Examples of the use of irregular verbs:

correct and irregular shape verb in English is a phenomenon unusual for native Russian speakers. It is important to learn to determine which group a particular word that describes an action belongs to.

Characteristics of regular verbs

English has a complex system of 16 grammatical tenses. In the process of the formation of the language, a complex system of conjugations with many endings gradually disappeared, as a result of which most verbs became regular. This feature of them is observed in the way the Simple Past Tense, Past Simple, and the Past Participle, Past Participle are formed.

The last form is used in various constructions from Present Perfect (Real Complete), Passive Voice (Passion voice) to type 3 conditional sentences.

Regular verbs add -ed to form Past Simple and Past Participle: look-looked (look), paint-painted (draw, paint).

The spelling of the ending obeys the rule:

• -e at the end of the base is removed: change-changed (change), love-loved (love), improve-improved (improve);
• the final consonant is doubled if there is a short stressed vowel in front of it: prefer-preferred (prefer), drop-dropped (drop);
• -y at the end is replaced by -i when it comes after a consonant: carry-carried (transfer), marry-married (marry), worry-worried (worry).

Added to these features is the -ed pronunciation, which also causes many problems. This ending conveys three sounds:

• /t/- for verbs ending in voiceless consonants: stop-stopped, look-looked, reach-reached;
• /d/- when there is a voiced consonant or vowel at the end of the stem: cry-cried (shout, cry), open-opened (open);
• /id/- for verbs with -t or -d: spot-spotted (notice), decide-decided (decide).

There are more regular verbs in English than exceptions. The only difficulty is learning the rules for adding and reading -ed.

Characteristics of irregular verbs

Unlike the words that form Past Simple and Past Participle according to the rule, these verbs, in the process of forming modern English, have retained some features of ancient word forms. For this reason, about 470 representatives of this part of speech do not add -ed, but change the stem itself. Such transformations include:

• root vowel alternation: drink-drank-drunk (to drink), swim-swam-swum (to swim);
• changing the root vowel and adding an ending: give-gave-given (to give);
• syllable contraction: meet-met-met (meet), choose-chose-chosen (choose);
• base transformation: buy-bought-bought (buy), catch-caught-caught (catch);
• no change: cost-cost-cost (cost), cut-cut-cut (cut).

Recommendations on how to distinguish regular verbs from irregular English in initial form, does not exist. To help students, many pivot tables have been created that need to be learned. For entry level English is enough to know the 50 most common irregular verbs.

What have we learned?

Regular and irregular verbs in English differ in the way they form the Past Simple and the Past Participle. The second group of words must be learned in order to successfully master English.

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