List of 220 irregular verbs in English

Complete table of english irregular verbs

Total: 220 irregular verbs

Important notes

• Alternative forms: Some verbs have two accepted forms (e.g. burnt/burned)
• Compound verbs: Verbs with prefixes (re-, un-, over-) generally follow the same rules as the base verb

Exercise on irregular verbs

Instructions: Complete the sentences with the correct form of the irregular verb (past tense or past participle).

Questions

1. Yesterday, I ___ to the store. (go)

   • a) go b) went c) gone

2. She has ___ three books this month. (read)

   • a) read b) red c) readed

3. The glass was ___ by accident. (break)

   • a) break b) broke c) broken

4. He ___ his homework before dinner. (do)

   • a) do b) did c) done

5. I have ___ this movie before. (see)

   • a) see b) saw c) seen

6. The bird ___ away when it saw us. (fly)

   • a) fly b) flew c) flown

7. She ___ a beautiful song at the concert. (sing)

   • a) sing b) sang c) sung

8. The letter was ___ yesterday. (write)

   • a) write b) wrote c) written

9. We ___ pizza for lunch. (eat)

   • a) eat b) ate c) eaten

10. The thief had ___ the money before the police arrived. (steal)

    • a) steal b) stole c) stolen

Answers

1. went (past tense of go)
2. read (past participle of read – same spelling but different pronunciation)
3. broken (past participle of break in a passive sentence)
4. did (past tense of do)
5. seen (past participle of see with “have”)
6. flew (past tense of fly)
7. sang (past tense of sing)
8. written (past participle of write in a passive sentence)
9. ate (past tense of eat)
10. stolen (past participle of steal with “had”)

FAQ on English irregular verbs

What is an irregular verb?

An irregular verb is a verb that does not follow the usual conjugation rules in English. Unlike regular verbs that form their past tense and past participle by simply adding “-ed” (e.g. walk → walked), irregular verbs change completely in form.

Examples:

• Regular verb: play → played → played
• Irregular verb: go → went → gone

How to easily learn the list of irregular verbs?

There are several effective strategies to master irregular verbs without feeling overwhelmed. Grouping by similarities works exceptionally well – for example, learning together verbs that maintain identical forms like cut/cut/cut, put/put/put and hit/hit/hit, or studying the “i-a-u” pattern found in sing/sang/sung, drink/drank/drunk and swim/swam/swum.

Using spaced repetition is crucial for long-term retention. Review approximately 10 verbs per day, always revisiting previously learned ones while adding new verbs to your repertoire. Flashcards or apps like Anki can be particularly helpful for this approach.

Rather than memorizing isolated lists, create meaningful sentences with each verb form. Practice with examples like “Yesterday I went to school” for past tense and “I have gone there before” for past participle usage. This contextual learning helps you understand when to use each form.

Then, to go further, nothing beats real practice: regularly speaking with a native teacher, as in an online English class, helps reinforce the use of irregular verbs in a lasting way.

How to recognize an irregular verb?

Recognizing irregular verbs becomes easier once you know what to look for. The most obvious indicator is in the past tense – if a verb doesn’t end in “-ed,” it’s probably irregular. Compare “I walked yesterday” (regular) with “I went yesterday” (irregular, not “goed”).

Many irregular verbs feature distinctive vowel changes in their central syllable, such as sing becoming sang, drink becoming drank, or run becoming ran. Others undergo complete transformations, like go becoming went or be becoming was/were.

When you encounter an unfamiliar verb and you’re unsure about its conjugation, the safest approach is to consult a dictionary or reference our comprehensive list. With practice, you’ll develop an intuitive sense for recognizing these patterns.

What are the most common irregular verbs?

The most essential irregular verbs that you’ll encounter daily are: be (was/were, been), have (had, had), do (did, done), go (went, gone), get (got, got/gotten), make (made, made), take (took, taken), come (came, come), see (saw, seen), know (knew, known), think (thought, thought), say (said, said), give (gave, given), find (found, found), tell (told, told), feel (felt, felt), leave (left, left), put (put, put), bring (brought, brought), and buy (bought, bought).

These twenty verbs represent approximately 80% of daily irregular verb usage in English. Mastering these verbs will give you a solid foundation for English communication. Once you’re comfortable with these core verbs, you can gradually expand your knowledge to include the less common irregular verbs from our comprehensive list.

How many irregular verbs are there in English?

The English language possesses approximately 200 irregular verbs in standard modern usage, but this number can reach over 680 verbs if prefixed forms, dialectal variants, and archaic forms are included. Most grammar books list approximately 100 common irregular verbs, which represent those you’ll encounter most frequently.

Our list of 220 verbs comprehensively covers all irregular verbs you’ll use in modern English, without including obsolete or overly specialized forms.