10 quirks about irregular verbs you may not know

During your English-learning process, all of you have studied irregular verbs several times. Probably you will have learnt them by heart and will have sat an exam. Well, you probably won’t have delved into irregular verbs in detail and that is what I will be doing in this post. Let's get started! :

1. Irregular verbs can be learnt by similarities much easily than in alphabetical order. 

Here you have some examples:

-ew: grew, drew, flew, threw, knew

- ght: thought, bought, brought, fought, caught, taught,…

- Same form as in the infinitive: read, set, cast, put, cut, shut, bet, bid, shed...

- i>a: sang, sank, swam, rang, drank...

-aid: paid, laid, said,...

2. Some verbs are regular or irregular depending on their meaning:

REGULAR VERB	MEANING	SIMPLE PAST	PAST PARTICIPLE
Lie	Not tell the truth	Lied	Lied
Ring	To encircle or surround	Ringed	Ringed
Can	To put food or liquid in a tin	Canned	Canned

Shine

To make something bright by polishing it

Shined

Shined

IRREGULAR VERB	MEANING	SIMPLE PAST	PAST PARTICIPLE
Lie	To put all your body on a surface	Lay	Lain
Ring	To telephone or to make a sound	Rang	Rung
Can	To have the probability or ability to do something	Could	Been able to

Shine

To emit light

Shone

Shone

3. Some irregular verbs have two possibilities depending on the English accent.

Infinitive	Simple past in British English	Past participle in British English	Simple past in American English	Past participle in American English
Dream	Dreamt	Dreamt	Dreamed	Dreamed
Burn	Burnt	Burnt	Burned	Burned
Spoil	Spoilt	Spoilt	Spoiled	Spoiled
Spill	Spilt	Spilt	Spilled	Spilled
Learn	Learnt	Learnt	Learned	Learned
Prove	Proved	Proved	Proved	Proven
Quit	Quitted	Quitted	Quit	Quit
Get	Got	Got	Got	Gotten

4. Some verbs can be regular and irregular at the same time.

Infinitive	Irregular simple past	Irregular participle	Regular simple past	Regular past participle
Dream	Dreamt	Dreamt	Dreamed	Dreamed
Burn	Burnt	Burnt	Burned	Burned
Spoil	Spoilt	Spoilt	Spoiled	Spoiled
Spill	Spilt	Spilt	Spilled	Spilled
Learn	Learnt	Learnt	Learned	Learned
Prove	Proved	Proved	Proved	Proven
Quit	Quit	Quit	Quitted	Quitted
Show	---- (showed)	Shown	Showed	Showed

Lie

Lay (to be in horizontal position)

Lain

Lied (not tell the truth)

Lied

Ring

Rang (phone or make a sound)

Rung

Ringed (encircle)

Ringed

Can

Could

Been able to

Canned (tin)

Canned

Prove

---- (proved)

Proven

Proved

Proved

5. Some irregular verbs have two possibilities depending on the meaning. The verb ‘hang’ has a regular past tense for all the uses of ‘hang’ but especially for the meaning of putting something on a hanger. The other regular  form ‘hanged’ is preferred when it comes to the meaning of ‘killing someone by suspending him or her by the neck from a rope.' Sometimes, they have two possibilities regardless of their meaning. The participle of 'show' can be 'showed' or 'shown', and the simple past of 'forbid' can be 'forbade' or 'forbad'. 

6. The past of some irregular verbs have the same identical form as the infinitive of some regular (and irregular) verbs:

‘Fell’ is the past of the verb ‘fall’, but at the same time ‘fell’ is a regular verbs (whose past tense and past participle is ‘felled’ which means ‘take down’)

‘Found’ is the past and participle of the verb ‘find’, but at the same time ‘found’ is a regular verb (whose past and participle are ‘founded’) which means ‘start something important’

‘Lay’ is the simple past of the irregular verb ‘lie’, but at the same time ‘lay’ is the infinitive form of the irregular verb ‘lay’ (whose past and participle forms are ‘laid’), which means ‘place something following an order’).

'Ground' is the simple past of the verb 'grind'. However, 'ground' is also a regular verb which means 'educate'. The same thing happens with 'wound'. 'Wound' is the past and participle of 'wind', but at the same time, it is a regular verb (whose past is 'wounded') which means 'injure'. 

7. There are four irregular verbs which mean ‘poner’ in Spanish, but they are a bit different

Put – put – put: to place something in a position ('put the bread on the table'-anywhere on the table)

Lay- laid – laid: to place something in a particular position ('lay the table)

Set – set- set: Close meaning to 'lay' with more emphasis on the organization ('set a wedding date)

Wear – wore – worn: to put on clothes

8. Appearances are deceitful and sometimes what looks like an irregular verb is not.

‘Stroke’ is not the past of the verb ‘strike’. ‘Stroke’ means 'to caress with the hand' or apoplexy.The past of ‘strike’ is ‘struck’ 

9. Gone vs. been

The verb ‘go’ has got two past participles: ‘gone’ is most cases, and ‘been’ in fewer cases.

We use the participle ‘gone’ when we imply that we have left for some place but we have not returned yet, e.g. Paul has gone to the shop.

We use the participle ‘been’ when we imply that we have travelled to a place but we have already returned. That’s why we say: ‘I have never been to Egypt’ and not ‘I have never gone to Egypt.’ Pay attention to the preposition ‘to’ in bold. This is a clear indicator that we are dealing with the verb ‘go’ and not be.’ It would be incorrect to say ‘I have never been in Egypt’

10. Troublesome irregular verbs

Fall – fell- fallen (lose balance)

Feel – felt- felt (have feelings)

Lie- lied- lied- not tell the truth

Lie – lay – lain (lean all your body on a horizontal surface)

Lay- laid – laid (to put something orderly).

In addition, there are far more irregular verbs that you can imagine: verbs like 'beseech', 'bear', or 'grind' are not usually studied at school. Now that you seem to have learnt a great deal about irregular verbs, I will keep you tested. In two days, I will be posting an exercise about complex irregular verbs that is going to make you sweat. Have fun until then !