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Verbs-Irregular Longman

This document discusses irregular verbs in English and their patterns. It identifies seven main classes of irregular verbs based on how their past tense and past participle forms differ from the base or present form. The classes involve adding suffixes like -t or -d, changing vowels, or having completely different forms. While some irregular verbs have regular alternatives, the irregular forms are usually more common. The verb "get" is unusual in having two irregular past participle forms, "got" and "gotten", with some differences in usage between American and British English.

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346 views3 pages

Verbs-Irregular Longman

This document discusses irregular verbs in English and their patterns. It identifies seven main classes of irregular verbs based on how their past tense and past participle forms differ from the base or present form. The classes involve adding suffixes like -t or -d, changing vowels, or having completely different forms. While some irregular verbs have regular alternatives, the irregular forms are usually more common. The verb "get" is unusual in having two irregular past participle forms, "got" and "gotten", with some differences in usage between American and British English.

Uploaded by

Olga Kardash
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© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Verbs

5.5.2 Irregular Verbs


There is a much smaller set of irregular verbs—that is, they have irregular past tense and ed-
participle forms—but these include many of the most common verbs. Note that the ed-participle is
a good label for regular verbs, since all regular verbs have an ed-participle (i.e., past participle)
ending in -ed. But it is a misleading label to use for irregular verbs, since irregular past participles
(like cut, eaten) rarely end in -ed.!

There are seven main patterns used to mark past tense and ed-participles in irregular verbs:

A Class 1
A -t suffix marks past tense and ed-participles. The t may replace a final d of the base: e.g. build
—built, send—sent, spend—spent. Or the t may be added to the base: e.g. spoil—spoilt, learn—
learnt. Some of the verbs that add t to the base also have a regular form: e.g. learnt and learned
both occur.

B Class 2
A -t for -d suffix marks past tense and ed-participle, and the base vowel changes.
For example:
base form past tense ed-participle
______________________________________
mean /mi:n/ meant /mɛnt/ meant
think /θɪŋk/ thought /θɔ:t/ thought
sell /sɛl/ sold /səʊld/ sold
tell /tɛl/ told /təʊld/ told
______________________________________

C Class 3
The regular -ed suffix marks past tense, but an -(e)n suffix marks ed-participles.
For example:
base form past tense ed-participle
_______________________________________________________
show showed shown (note: showed also occurs)
_______________________________________________________

D Class 4
No suffix is used for the past tense, but ed-participles have an -(e)n suffix; in addition, the base
vowel changes in either the past tense, ed-participle, or both.
For example:
base form past tense ed-participle
_______________________________________
give /ɪ/ gave /eɪ/ given /ɪ/
know /əʊ/ knew /(j)u:/ known /əʊ/
see /i:/ saw /ɔ:/ seen /i:/
_______________________________________

1
E Class 5
The base vowel changes in the past tense, the ed-participle, or both; there are no other changes.
For example:
base form past tense ed-participle
_______________________________________
begin /ɪ/ began /æ/ begun /ʌ/
come /ʌ/ came /eɪ/ come /ʌ/
find /aɪ/ found /aʊ/ found /aʊ/
_______________________________________

F Class 6
Past tense and ed-participle forms are identical to the base form.
For example:
base form past tense ed-participle
_______________________________________
cut cut cut
hit hit hit
_______________________________________

G Class 7
One of the forms is completely different.
For example:

base form past tense ed-participle


__________________________________________________
go /gəʊ/ went /wɛnt/ g
gone BrE / ɒn/ AmE /gɔn/
__________________________________________________

5.5.3 Preference for regular v. irregular endings

Many irregular verbs also have regular alternatives. For example, two different forms are used for
the past tense of speed: the irregular sped, and the regular form speeded. In most cases, one
form is used more than the other. For example, the irregular forms hung, lit, quit, and sped are
more common than the regular forms hanged, lighted, quitted, and speeded. In contrast, the
regular forms dreamed, knitted, and leaned are much more common than the irregular forms
dreamt, knit, and learnt.

For a few verbs, different forms are associated with different grammatical functions. For example,
the regular form spoiled is used more commonly for past tense, but the irregular form spoilt is
used more commonly for the ed-participle (in British English).

2
In American English, the verb get is unusual because it has two irregular ed-participle forms that
occur following have: got and gotten. In British English, the combination have + gotten almost
never occurs. In both American English and British English, the combination have got can
express a meaning roughly equivalent to have as a lexical verb, or it can express the perfect
aspect meaning of get:

 Meanings equivalent to have as a lexical verb:


Look at that face. He hasn’t got any teeth. (AmE CONV)
<compare: He doesn’t have any teeth.>

Have you got an exam on Monday? (BrE CONV)


<compare: Do you have an exam on Monday?>

 Perfect aspect of get:


It could have got put in storage or something. (AmE CONV)
We have got ourselves into a rut. (BrE NEWS)

In contrast, have gotten in American English almost always has a perfect aspect meaning, as in:
I can’t believe Ginger’s bike hasn’t gotten stolen yet. (AmE CONV)

Biber, D., et. al. Longman Student Grammar of Spoken and Written English. Pearson Education
Limited, 2002.

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