Irregular Verbs

A verb expresses action, occurrence or state of being. Regular verbs form the past tense by adding –d or– ed. Irregular verbs do not follow this typical pattern. Our list of irregular verbs contains over 125 verbs. We also identified the most common ones as well as offer free irregular past tense verbs worksheets to help a child comprehend these words.

List of Irregular Verbs

Present	Past	Past Participle *
am	was	been
are	were	been
beat	beat	beaten
become	became	become
begin	began	begun
bend	bent or bended	bent or bended
bet	bet	bet
bite	bit	bitten
bleed	bled	bled
blow	blew	blown
break	broke	broken
bring	brought	brought
build	built	built
burst	burst	burst
cast	cast	cast
catch	caught	caught
choose	chose	chosen
come	came	come
cost	cost	cost
creep	crept	crept
cut	cut	cut
dig	dug	dug
dive	dove or dived	dived
do	did	done
does	did	done
draw	drew	drawn
dream	dreamt or dreamed	dreamed or dreamt
drink	drank	drunk
drive	drove	driven
eat	ate	eaten
fall	fell	fallen
feed	fed	fed
feel	felt	felt
fight	fought	fought
fly	flew	flown
forbid	forbade	forbidden
forget	forgot	foegotten
forgive	forgave	forgiven
freeze	froze	frozen
get	got	got or gotten
give	gave	given
go	went	gone
grow	grew	grown
grind	ground	ground
hang	hung or hanged	hung
has	had	had
hear	heard	heard
hide	hid	hidden
hit	hit	hit
hold	held	held
hurt	hurt	hurt
is	was	has been
keep	kept	kept
kneel	kneeled or knelt	kneeled or knelt
know	knew	known
lay	laid	laid
leap	leaped or leapt	leaped or leapt
leave	left	left
lend	lent	lent
let	let	let
lie	lay	lain
light	lit	lit
lose	lost	lost
make	made	made
mean	meant	meant
mow	mowed	mowed or mown
put	put	put
quit	quit	quit
read	read	read
ride	rode	ridden
ring	rang	rung
rise	rose	risen
run	ran	run
saw	sawed	sawed or sawn
say	said	said
see	saw	seen
sell	sold	sold
set	set	set
sew	sewed	sewed or sewn
shake	shook	shaken
shed	shed	shed
shine	shined or shone	shined or shone
shoot	shot	shot
show	showed	shown or showed
shrink	shrank or shrunk	shrunk
shut	shut	shut
sing	sang	sung
sink	sank	sunk
sit	sat	sat
sleep	slept	slept
slide	slid	slid
slit	slit	slit
sow	sowed	sowed or sown
speak	spoke	spoken
spend	spent	spent
spin	spun	spun
spit	spit	spit
split	split	split
spread	spread	spread
spring	sprang or sprung	sprung
stand	stood	stood
steal	stole	stolen
stick	stuck	stuck
sting	stung	stung
strike	struck	struck
string	strung	strung
swear	swore	sworn
sweat	sweat or sweated	sweat or sweated
sweep	swept	swept
swim	swam or swum	swum
swing	swung	swung
take	took	taken
teach	taught	taught
tear	tore	torn
tell	told	told
think	thought	thought
throw	threw	thrown
thrust	thrust	thrust
understand	understood	understood
wake	woke or waked	woken or waked
wear	wore	worn
weave	wove	woven
weep	wept	wept
wet	wet	wet
win	won	won
wind	wound	wound
write	wrote	written

* Note: The past participle also needs was, has, had or is.

To obtain a PDF of the entire list, please click on this link.

Worksheets and Activities

These irregular verbs worksheets and activities below provide entertaining exercises that reinforce these verbs, specifically their past and present tense as well as definition.

List of Common Irregular Verbs

Dolch included 92 verbs on his sight word list, which represent 41% of his word list. Interestingly, over half of those verbs are irregular so we created the above fun activities to help a child comprehend these words. The table below lists these verbs that are included on Dolch’s sight word list. We excluded the auxiliary verbs, e.g. am, was, are, were, do, does, did, has, have, had, can, could. Dolch included 23 auxiliary verbs. When you combined both irregular verbs and the auxiliary verbs, they represent over 70% of Dolch’s verb.

Present	Past	Present	Past
bring	brought*	know	knew*
buy	bought*	let	let
come	came	make	made
cut	cut	put	put
draw	drew*	read	read
drink	drank*	ride	rode*
eat	ate	run	ran
fall	fell *	say	said
find	found	see	saw
fly	flew*	sing	sang*
get	got	sit	sat*
give	gave	sleep	slept*
go, goes	went	take	took*
grow	grew*	tell	told*
hold	held*	think	thought*
hurt	hurt	write	wrote*
keep	kept

*Not included on Dolch’s sight word list.

Sight word activities assist a child in developing a sight word vocabulary. They offer fun and entertaining ways to reinforce new sight words or previously learned ones.

Source: Fry, E.B., Ph.D. & Kress, J.E., Ed.D. (2006). The Reading Teacher’s Book of Lists 5th Edition. San Francisco, CA: Jossey Bass.