Regular verbs form the past tense and past participle by adding -ed (or -d after -e).
- walk → walked
- play → played
- study → studied (y → ied)
- love → loved
Irregular verbs change their form entirely. They do not follow the -ed pattern.
| Base | Past | Past Participle | | ----- | ------- | --------------- | | go | went | gone | | eat | ate | eaten | | swim | swam | swum | | sing | sang | sung | | buy | bought | bought | | teach | taught | taught | | think | thought | thought | | bring | brought | brought | | drink | drank | drunk | | begin | began | begun | | break | broke | broken | | speak | spoke | spoken | | take | took | taken | | write | wrote | written | | drive | drove | driven | | run | ran | run | | come | came | come | | see | saw | seen | | know | knew | known | | give | gave | given |
Some irregular verbs follow pattern groups:
- i-a-u: sing → sang → sung, ring → rang → rung, swim → swam → swum
- -ought / -aught: buy → bought, teach → taught, bring → brought
- no change: put → put → put, cut → cut → cut, set → set → set