When you use a past simple form or a past participle form of a verb, some verbs are regular verbs and some verbs are irregular verbs

List of irregular verbs

When you use a past simple form or a past participle form of a verb, some verbs are regular verbs and some verbs are irregular verbs. If a verb is regular, the past simple and past participle end in -ed. But when the past simple and past participle don't end in -ed, the verb is irregular. The following verbs are irregular verbs.

infinitive	past simple	past participle
be	was/were	been
beat	beat	beaten
become	became	become
begin	began	begun
bend	bent	bent
bet	bet	bet
bite	bit	bitten
blow	blew	blown
break	broke	broken
bring	brought	brought
build	built	built
burst	burst	burst
buy	bought	bought
catch	caught	caught
choose	chose	chosen
come	came	come
cost	cost	cost
cut	cut	cut
deal	dealt	dealt
dig	dug	dug
do	did	done
draw	drew	drawn
drink	drank	drunk
drive	drove	driven
eat	ate	eaten
fall	fell	fallen
feed	fed	fed
feel	felt	felt
fight	fought	fought
find	found	found
fly	flew	flown
forbid	forbade	forbidden
forget	forgot	forgotten
forgive	forgave	forgiven
freeze	froze	frozen
get	got	got
give	gave	given
go	went	gone
grow	grew	grown
hang	hung	hung
have	had	had
hear	heard	heard
hide	hid	hidden
hit	hit	hit
hold	held	held
hurt	hurt	hurt
keep	kept	kept
know	knew	known
lay	laid	laid
lead	led	led
leave	left	left
lend	lent	lent
let	let	let
lie	lay	lain
light	lit	lit
lose	lost	lost
make	made	made
mean	meant	meant
meet	met	met
pay	paid	paid
put	put	put
read /ri:d/	read /red/	read /red/
ride	rode	ridden
ring	rang	rung
rise	rose	risen
run	ran	run
say	said	said
see	saw	seen
seek	sought	sought
sell	sold	sold
send	sent	sent
set	set	set
sew	sewed	sewn/sewed
shake	shook	shaken
shine	shone	shone
shoot	shot	shot
show	showed	shown
shrink	shrank	shrunk
shut	shut	shut
sing	sang	sung
sink	sank	sunk
sit	sat	sat
sleep	slept	slept
speak	spoke	spoken
spend	spent	spent
split	split	split
spread	spread	spread
spring	sprang	sprung
stand	stood	stood
steal	stole	stolen
stick	stuck	stuck
sting	stung	stung
stink	stank	stunk
strike	struck	struck
swear	swore	sworn
sweep	swept	swept
swim	swam	swum
swing	swung	swung
take	took	taken
teach	taught	taught
tear	tore	torn
tell	told	told
think	thought	thought
throw	threw	thrown
understand	understood	understood
wake	woke	woken
wear	wore	worn
win	won	won
write	wrote	written

Rules for Irregular Plural Formation of Nouns

The majority of nouns in English spell their plural by simply adding a final -s. Nouns that are noncount or abstract (e.g., cheese, sugar, honesty, intelligence) generally take a singular verb, but in some instances can be plural, in which case they follow the rules for plural based on their spelling. Also, there are some categories of words which are only plural, even though their spelling does not reflect this. They are included in a list at the end of this page. For irregular count nouns and nouns that have been borrowed from other languages, the rules are as follows:

Variations of the final -s rule:

Nouns that end with -s, -z, -x, -sh, -ch

Add -es

glass/glasses, buzz/buzzes, box/boxes, bush/bushes, switch/switches

Nouns that end in -o
Add -es

potato/potatoes, echo/echoes, hero/heroes

exceptions: studio/studios, piano/pianos, kangaroo/kangaroos, zoo/zoos

either: buffalo/buffalo(e)s, cargo/cargo(e)s, motto/motto(e)s,

volcano/volcano(e)s

Nouns that end in a consonant + -y

Change -y to -i and add -es

baby/babies, spy/spies, poppy/poppies

Nouns that end in -f, or -fe
Change the -f to -v and add -es

shelf/shelves, wolf/wolves, knife/knives, wife/wives

Nouns adopted from other languages:

Singular ends in -is
Plural ends in -es

analysis/analyses, basis/bases

Singular ends in -um
Plural ends in -a

datum/data, curriculum/curricula

Singular ends in -on
Plural ends in -a

criterion/criteria, phenomenon/phenomena

Singular ends in -a
Plural ends in -ae

formula/formulae, antenna/antennae

Singular ends in -ex or -ix
Plural ends in -ices

appendix/appendices, index/indices

Singular ends in -us
Plural ends in -i

focus/foci, stimulus/stimuli

Singular ends in -us
Plural ends in -a

corpus/corpora, genus/genera

Singular ends in -eau
Plural ends in -eaux

bureau/bureaux, beau/beaux

Nouns that have only a plural form and so take a plural verb

Things that come in pairs
Tools: glasses, scissors, binoculars, forceps, tongs, tweezers

Clothes: jeans, pants, pajamas, shorts, trousers

Nouns that end in -s but have no singular (aggregate nouns)
accommodations, amends, archives, arms (weapons), bowels, intestines,

brains (intellect), clothes, communications, congratulations, contents,

stairs, thanks, goods

Nouns that are plural but do not end in -s
people, police, cattle, people

Irregular Nouns

SINGULAR	PLURAL
alumnus	alumni
analysis	analyses
antenna	antennae/antennas
appendix	appendices
axis	axes
bacterium	bacteria
basis	bases
beau	beaux
bureau	bureaux/bureaus
child	children
corpus	corpora/corpuses
crisis	crises
criterion	criteria
curriculum	curricula
datum	data
deer	deer
diagnosis	diagnoses
ellipsis	ellipses
fish	fish
focus	foci/focuses
foot	feet
formula	formulae/formulas
fungus	fungi/funguses
genus	genera
goose	geese
hypothesis	hypotheses
index	indices/indexes
louse	lice
man	men
matrix	matrices
means	means
medium	media
mouse	mice
nebula	nebulae
nucleus	nuclei
oasis	oases
ox	oxen
paralysis	paralyses
parenthesis	parentheses
phenomenon	phenomena
radius	radii
series	series
sheep	sheep
species	species
stimulus	stimuli
stratum	strata
synthesis	syntheses
synopsis	synopses
tableau	tableaux
thesis	theses
tooth	teeth
vertebra	vertebrae
vita	vitae
woman	women

Rules for Irregular Spelling of Verb Inflections

Verb inflections include any endings added to the base form of the verb. These include -s, -ing, and -ed. Spelling for the majority of verbs is regular, and the inflections are simply added to the base form. For a few verbs, though, the spelling does change, and the rules are outlined below. For more information on irregular verbs and verb tenses, please see the List of Irregular Verbs at this web site.

Doubling of Consonants

1. If the base form ends in a single consonant and the preceding vowel is stressed and spelled with only one letter, double the consonant before adding -ing and -ed

occur/occurring, swim/swimming, ship/shipping

2. If the preceding vowel is unstressed or spelled with two vowels, do not double the consonant

enter/entering, visit/visiting, develop/developing, dread/dreading,

appeal/appealing, shout/shouting

3. If the base form ends in -c, change the -c to -ck

panic/panicking, picnic/picnicking

4. There are exceptions with some verbs ending in -l, -m, and -p

travel--traveling or travelling
program--programing or programming
worship--worshiping or worshipping

Deletion or Addition of -e

1. If the base form ends in an unpronounced -e, drop the -e before adding -ing and -ed inflections

create/creating, type/typing, bake/baking

2. For monosyllabic verbs ending in -ye, -oe, or -nge, keep the final -e before -ing, but drop it before -ed

dye--dyeing/dyed
hoe--hoeing/hoed
singe--singeing/singed

3. If the base form ends in -ie or -ee, drop the final -e before -ed

die/died, agree/agreed, tie/tied

4. If the verb ends in -s, -z, -x, -sh, and -ch, add -e before the -s ending

pass/passes, buzz/buzzes, coax/coaxes, wash/washes, watch/watches

Treatment of -y

1. If the base form ends in -y, change the -y to -ie

carry/carries, try/tries

2. If the base form ends in -ed, change the -y to -i

carry/carried, try/tried

3. Following a vowel or preceding -ing, the -y remains

stay/stayed, toy/toying, try/trying, carry/carrying

4. If the base form ends in -ie, change the -ie to -y before -ing

die/dying, lie/lying, tie/tying

Pat Byrd — Department of Applied Linguistics & ESL — Georgia State University — Atlanta, GA 30302
patbyrd@gsu.edu & tmcklin@gsu.edu