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What is an irregular verb? Well, to figure this out, first of all we need to know what a regular verb is. So here goes:
A regular verb is a "doing word" that follows standard rules for forming the past tense (when the action has happened in the past) and past participle (the adjectival form of the verb) are formed by adding "d" or "ed" to the verb. Here are some examples:
| Verb | Past Tense | Past Participle |
| share | shared | shared |
| work | worked | worked |
| snore | snored | snored |
| retreat | retreated | retreated |
Now, an irregular verb is one where the "add d or ed" rule doesn't apply. That's all. Here are just a few examples, from among hundreds:
| Verb | Past Tense | Past Participle |
| awake | awoke | awoken |
| be | was, were | been |
| begin | began | begun |
| bite | bit | bitten |
| choose | chose | chosen |
| draw | drew | drawn |
| forbid | forbade | forbidden |
| grow | grew | grown |
| know | knew | known |
| leave | left | left |
| make | made | made |
| prove | proved | proven |
| shake | shook | shaken |
| shrink | shrank | shrunk |
| swim | swam | swum |
| tread | trod | trodden |
| understand | understood | understood |
| weep | wept | wept |
| win | won | won |
| write | wrote | written |
As you can see, there aren't any standard rules to apply to these cases, and it's just a matter of learning the correct forms from memory, I'm afraid. Software programs such as Ultimate Spelling and Ultimate Vocabulary can really help a lot in drilling these words.
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