Irregular Verbs

     Perhaps you think that "irregular" means something out of the ordinary, and in common parlance it does, but if you look up irregular in the dictionary, you'll see that the first definition is a little different. "Irregular" describes something that does not adhere to established rules.

Irregular verbs don’t take on the regular –d, -ed, or -ied spelling patterns of the past simple, or past participle.

Irregular verbs live by their own set of rules; they are the mavericks of the English language. Most of the verbs in the English language are irregular verbs.

Irregular verbs are also known as strong verbs. Here are nine that are used more often than the rest. These nine irregular verb examples also happen to be among the most commonly used words in the English language. They are:

 Go                              Get                              Say                           See                Think

 Make                         Take                            Come                        Know

Conjugation for an Irregular Verb

Any verb that does not break down using the rules of tenses like "to walk" is an irregular verb. That means that the conjugation is not based on the rules of tenses; but rather on the specific conjugation which is used for the word. This means that verbal conjugation is a game of memorization. You need to memorize the specific conjugation for each irregular verb.

The past tense and past participle are the forms that are normally made in irregular fashion. About 200 verbs in normal use have irregularities in one or other (or usually both) of these forms. They may derive from Germanic strong verbs, as with sing–sang–sung or rise–rose–risen, or from weak verbs which have come to deviate from the standard pattern in some way (teach–taught–taught, keep–kept–kept, build–built–built, etc.). (Usually, past participle sometimes ends in "n", "d" or "ed".) They change in spelling sometimes. (Past and Past participle only.)

Learning Irregular Verbs

Since there are no specific rules regarding conjugating the tenses of irregular verbs, the only way to really learn them is to keep your ears open.

Impact of the Misuse of Irregular Verbs

The English language works, more or less, without paying too much attention to whether the speaker is using the verb correctly or not. When an English learner says, "yesterday I speaked with the President," it makes as much sense as if he'd said "spoke." That flexibility is why English remains the lingua franca; one does not have to speak it properly to be understood.

Since people can understand English even when it is spoken incorrectly, using an irregular verb correctly isn't critical to be understood. Other languages have conjugation rules that are all but required just to get a simple point across. In English following the rules are not critical to be understood.

Benefit of Proper Use of Irregular Verbs

If you want to sound intelligent or at least like a native speaker, you should mind your irregular verbs. They aren't hard to remember, and they really do make a difference when you're speaking with anyone whose opinion you care about. Having a firm grasp on one’s irregular verbs displays a command of the English language. Most importantly, if you know your irregular verbs, you'll sound smart.