English Past Tenses: Irregular Verbs and their Conjugations

When it comes to grammar, English is not a difficult language. With no gender categories for nouns and adjectives and very few verb forms, English hardly gives us any reason to complain! In fact, when it comes to forming the past tense and past participle most verbs follow a regular pattern. A true blessing! All we have to do is simply add “-ed” to the base form of the verb, and voilá.

For example, “walk” becomes “walked,” “talk” becomes “talked,” and “play” becomes “played.” And not just in the past simple. In the past participle form too!

These verbs are called regular verbs due to their consistent endings, and we are very grateful that there are so many of them. However, there is a group of verbs that do not adhere to this rule, known as irregular verbs.

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In this blog article, we will explore irregular verbs and their conjugations, highlighting the most common patterns they follow. Hopefully, we’ll help you avoid common English grammar mistakes!

Past Tenses – Irregular Verbs That Have Only Two Forms

Let’s start with one of the easiest categories: verbs that have only two forms, meaning that their past simple and past participle forms are the same.

Here are some examples:

These verbs demonstrate a consistent pattern where the past simple and past participle forms are identical. And, while there is no predictable rule for these verbs, it is comforting to know you’ll only have to memorize one form!

Past Tenses – Irregular Verbs That Have Only One Form

If verbs with two forms are not easy enough for you, wait until you hear this. In English, there is another category of irregular verbs in which all three forms (infinitive, past simple, and past participle) are exactly the same.

Does that sound too good to be true? Well, here they are:

These verbs, like the previous category, display a consistent pattern in their conjugation. And, although the rule is not applicable to all irregular verbs, it is helpful to recognize this pattern when encountering these particular words!

Irregular Verbs Whose Participle Form Coincides with the Infinitive Form

We have already seen that some irregular verbs in English can have one shared form for both the past simple and the past participle forms. But, in a few rare occasions, you will also find verbs whose past participle form coincides with the infinitive form.

Here are a couple of examples:

These verbs exhibit an interesting pattern where the past participle form aligns with the base or infinitive form, but not with the past simple form. So far, irregular verbs and their conjugations don’t seem to be so hard, right?

Past Verbs That Present a Single Vowel Change

Last but not least, many irregular verbs in English undergo a vowel change in the past tense rather than a change in the verb’s ending.

As you can see, these verbs usually take an “i” in the infinitive form, an “a” in the past simple form, “and a “u” in the past participle form.

Past Tenses: Irregular Verbs Teach, Lay, and Rise

Since so many of our students are often confused by these three verbs in particular, we thought it best to put them in a separate category.

What are the past tenses of ‘teach’?

Let’s start with Teach. This verb follows the vowel change pattern (it changes its infinitive “ea” to an “ou”) but it also presents an ending change:

Base form: teach

Past simple: taught

Past participle: taught

The reason why the past tenses of ‘teach’ are so challenging is that there are many other words that are easily confused with “taught”: thought (the past of think), though (meaning however), and through (a common preposition) among them.

What is the past tense for ‘lay’?

The verb ‘lay’ means to put something down in a flat position. It can also mean to lay an egg (as for chickens). It is an irregular verb whose past tense and past participle form can be a bit confusing, as it “looks regular” without being regular.

Base form: lay

Past simple: laid

Past participle: laid

Also, lay is often confused with “lie”, a verb meaning to recline, and whose past tenses are lie, lay, and lain. So, yeah, we totally get the confusion.

What is the past tense for ‘rise’?

Finally, we have ‘rise’. This word is a verb that means to stand up or get higher. It is an irregular verb that follows another common pattern: its past participle form ends in “-en”.

Base form: rise

Past simple: rose

Past participle: risen

If you ever forget how to conjugate the past tense of ‘rise’, remember that the three forms coincide with the verb ‘drive’: drive/rise; drove/rose; driven/risen.

So, there you have it! Irregular verbs may sometimes be tricky, but as long as you remember the pattern for each verb, you’ll soon become more confident when conjugating them. We hope this guide was helpful and that it will make your journey to mastering the English language a little bit easier!

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