Distinguishing Regular & Irregular Verbs

Regular vs Irregular Verbs

To master the English language, it is essential to understand the difference between regular and irregular verbs. Both regular and irregular verbs are critical aspects of English grammar and must be distinguished from one another. Both types of verbs fall under the eight parts of speech, and to proceed to even simple past tense, it is necessary to know whether a verb is regular or irregular.

What is a Regular Verb?

A regular verb is a verb that does not change much in form other than the addition of ‘verbal terminations’ at the end. Verbs like ‘listen,’ ‘look,’ and ‘love’ are regular verbs, and their past tense forms are ‘listened,’ ‘looked,’ and ‘loved,’ respectively. Regular verbs simply take ‘ed’ as their verbal terminations in the past tense or simple past tense. For example, verbs like destroy, deliver, decay, delight, educate, employ, enter, escape, and expand take ‘ed’ in both their past tense form and the past participle form.

What is an Irregular Verb?

An irregular verb is a verb that changes completely in past and past participle forms. Verbs like ‘go,’ ‘run,’ and ‘eat’ are irregular verbs, and their past tense forms are ‘went,’ ‘ran,’ and ‘ate,’ respectively. Irregular verbs have different forms in their simple past and past participle tense forms.

In some cases, the simple past and past participle forms of the irregular verbs may be the same. Additionally, some irregular verbs have the same form in their present, simple past, and past participle forms, such as the verbs cut, cost, and read.

Key Takeaways

• Regular verbs do not change much in form other than the addition of ‘verbal terminations’ at the end, while irregular verbs change completely in past and past participle forms.
• Regular verbs simply take ‘ed’ as their verbal terminations in the past tense or simple past tense.
• Irregular verbs can have different forms in their simple past and past participle tense forms, the same form in past and past participle tense forms, or the same form in present, past, and past participle tense forms.