English has roughly 240 irregular verbs, but most follow one of a few patterns. Learn the pattern, then the exceptions. Every verb below is in the Irregular Verbs list with audio.
A – A – A: all three forms identical
cut, put, set, let, hit, hurt, cost, shut, quit, split, spread — nothing to learn except that they never change (read is written the same but the past is pronounced /rɛd/).
A – B – B: past and participle identical
The largest group.
- -ought / -aught: buy → bought, bring → brought, think → thought, fight → fought, seek → sought, catch → caught, teach → taught
- -t endings: build → built, send → sent, spend → spent, lend → lent, bend → bent, lose → lost, leave → left, feel → felt, keep → kept, sleep → slept, sweep → swept
- -d endings: feed → fed, lead → led, meet → met, bleed → bled, hold → held, sell → sold, tell → told, say → said, pay → paid
A – B – A: base and participle identical
A very small group: come → came → come, become → became → become, run → ran → run.
A – B – C: three different forms
- i – a – u: sing → sang → sung, drink → drank → drunk, swim → swam → swum, begin → began → begun, ring → rang → rung
- -en participles: take → took → taken, give → gave → given, eat → ate → eaten, fall → fell → fallen, write → wrote → written, drive → drove → driven, ride → rode → ridden, rise → rose → risen
- -n participles: know → knew → known, grow → grew → grown, throw → threw → thrown, blow → blew → blown, draw → drew → drawn, fly → flew → flown, show → showed → shown
- Odd ones out: go → went → gone, be → was/were → been, do → did → done
How to practise
- Sort the verbs by pattern in the list (By Form tab).
- Take the irregular verbs quiz — it asks for the past simple form.
- Save the ones you miss; they return in your spaced-repetition reviews.