Irregular Verbs List (100+)

Are you looking for a complete list of common irregular verbs? Then you’ve come to the right place. In this article, we have researched our way into creating an irregular verbs list and sorted our findings based on their popularity in Google’s search engine.

Verb	Simple Past	Past Participle
go	went	gone
drive	drove	driven
dream	dreamed / dreamt	dreamed / dreamt
do	did	done
mean	meant	meant
split	split	split
spring	sprang	sprung
lose	lost	lost
fall	fell	fallen
see	saw	seen
be	was / were	been
ring	rang	rung
rise	rose	risen
pay	paid	paid
get	got	got / gotten
sing	sang	sung
choose	chose	chosen
find	found	found
sleep	slept	slept
fight	fought	fought
fly	flew	flown
break	broke	broken
lead	led	led
show	showed	shown
awake	awoke	awoken
win	won	won
quit	quit / quitted	quit / quitted
breed	bred	bred
arise	arose	arisen
wear	wore	worn
understand	understood	understood
strive	strove / strived	striven / strived
catch	caught	caught
tear	tore	torn
swim	swam	swum
spend	spent	spent
steal	stole	stolen
burn	burned / burnt	burned / burnt
have	had	had
stand	stood	stood
know	knew	known
sink	sank	sunk
build	built	built
fit	fitted / fit	fitted / fit
swing	swung	swung
wake up	woke up	waked up / woken up
give	gave	given
beat	beat	beaten
lie	lay	lain
drink	drank	drunk
make	made	made
blow	blew	blown
come	came	come
sit	sat	sat
draw	drew	drawn
bite	bit	bitten
grow	grew	grown
eat	ate	eaten
shake	shook	shaken
send	sent	sent
write	wrote	written
take	took	taken
meet	met	met
learn	learned / learnt	learned / learnt
teach	taught	taught
buy	bought	bought
dig	dug	dug
speak	spoke	spoken
spit	spat / spit	spat / spit
forbid	forbade	forbidden
prove	proved	proved / proven
hear	heard	heard
sell	sold	sold
feel	felt	felt
shrink	shrank	shrunk
tell	told	told
become	became	become
deal	dealt	dealt
feed	fed	fed
wake	woke	woken
begin	began	begun
hide	hid	hidden
slay	slew	slain
hang	hung	hung
bring	brought	brought
throw	threw	thrown
think	thought	thought
bend	bent	bent
hold	held	held
forget	forgot	forgotten / forgot
freeze	froze	frozen
ride	rode	ridden
swear	swore	sworn
bind	bound	bound
forgive	forgave	forgiven
keep	kept	kept
stink	stank	stunk
swell	swelled	swollen
leave	left	left
sew	sewed	sewed / sewn
lend	lent	lent

20 Most Common Irregular Verbs

What Is An Irregular Verb?

An irregular verb is a name we give to any verb that does not follow the expected English rules when turned into the past tense. While regular verbs have “-ed” endings, irregular verbs can vary based on the base verb form.

The definition of an irregular verb, according to Dictionary.com, is “a verb in which the past tense is not formed by adding the usual -ed ending.”

As you can see, most of the irregularity in the verb form comes from it not being standard. Also, since there is more than one past tense form, it means that most irregular verb forms have multiple tenses and variations we need to address.

This is not the case with regular verbs. The present tense is one form, while the past tense is another. We might expect the following if a verb was “regular:”

• Like / Liked
• Walk / Walked
• Wait / Waited

However, when we use irregular verbs, we are met with many different verb endings. We have to split the past tense into two very different forms for all of these verbs. This is where the past participle and simple past tense come into play.

The present tense form stays the same, and we might see the following irregular verbs and think nothing more of them:

• Drink
• Drive
• Eat
• Fall

However, we cannot use the past tense forms as follows:

• Drinked
• Drived
• Eated
• Falled

Instead, we have the past participle and the simple past tense to use:

• Drunk / Drank
• Driven / Drove
• Eaten / Ate
• Fallen / Fell

Unfortunately, there are no exact rules we can follow between the different irregular verbs. Most of it comes down to remembering which verbs change to which forms!

Irregular Verbs Examples

To help you understand more about the irregular verb forms, we can split the examples into three sections. We’ll make sure to use the same verb for each numbered example, and you can see the different variations we use based on the tense.

Present Tense

1. I drive my car whenever I have the time.
2. You drink too much, and it’s bad for you.
3. I eat a lot on the weekend.

The present tense is simple enough. All irregular verb forms are the same in the present tense as most regular verb forms. We just use them as the base form for the past tense (which is where the irregularities come from).

Simple Past Tense

4. You drove to visit your mother that week.
5. I drank too much again, and my head hurt.
6. I ate a lot of cake when no one was looking.

The simple past tense refers to events that have happened before. We have to use different past tense forms based on the irregular present tense verb. Unfortunately, there are no strict rules we can apply to any of them.

Past Participle

7. You have driven your last journey in this car.
8. I have drunk the same beer for fifty years!
9. We have eaten all of the desserts.

The past participle isn’t a verb form we can use on its own. We always need auxiliary verbs (like “have”) alongside the past participle. Again, there is no strict way to remember exactly what verb form has what past participle rules.

Irregular Verbs Quiz

Finally, let’s see if you can figure out some of the answers to this quiz. We’ll only focus on the irregular verbs we’ve mentioned in this article to save you from too much confusion!

1. We (A. drink / B. drank / C. drunk) all day yesterday.
2. You could (A. eat / B. ate / C. eaten) a whole horse if we allowed you to!
3. I (A. drink / B. drank / C. drunk) when I feel like it!
4. He (A. drive / B. drove / C. driven) to visit his inlaws yesterday.
5. I (A. eat / B. ate / C. eaten) a lot at the party!
6. You (A. drive / B. drove / C. driven) me crazy!
7. Please don’t (A. eat / B. ate / C. eaten) any more.
8. You should have (A. drink / B. drank / C. drunk) the opened Scotch!
9. You have (A. eat / B. ate / C. eaten) all of my best cakes! How could you?
10. I should not have (A. drive / B. drove / C. driven) this far to come and see you.

Quiz Answers

1. B
2. A
3. A
4. B
5. B
6. A
7. A
8. C
9. C
10. C