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39
Irregular verb forms
299 Summary
A regular verb takes the endings s, ed and ing. For example, base form look,
s-form looks, past tense looked, ing-form looking and past/passive participle
looked. For more details, 58.
List of irregular verbs 300
Some verbs have ah irregular past tense and participle.
Base form:
Did you write the letter?
Past tense:
I wrote the letter yesterday.
Past participle:
I've written the letter.
We also use the irregular forms after a prefix such as re, un, out, mis.
I've rewritten the letter.
He undid the knot.

Special participle forms 301

Some special participle forms come before a noun.
a drunken riot

300 List of irregular verbs

Base form

Past tense

Past/passive participle

300 List of irregular verbs

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Base form

Past tense

Past/passive participle

39 IRREGULAR VERB FORMS

Base form

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Past tense

Past/passive participle

300 List of irregular verbs

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Base form

Past tense

Past/passive participle

39 IRREGULAR VERB FORMS

Base form

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Past tense

Past/passive participle

300 List of irregular verbs

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Base form

Past tense

Past/passive participle

NOTE

a For verbs which have forms both in ed and t, e.g. burned / burnt, dream / dreamt, 303(11).
b Cost as a transitive verb is regular.
They've costed the project. (= estimated the cost)
c The third person singular of do is does
d Fit is usually regular in Britain but irregular in the US.
. In the US it is
e In GB the past tense of forbid is forbad or forbade, pronounced
forbade, pronounced
f For the past participle gotten
(US), 303(5d).
g The third person singular of go is goes
For gone and been, 84(6).
h We use hanged only to talk about hanging a person.
i The third person singular of have is has
j For the difference between lay and lie, 11 (2) Note b. Lie (= tell an untruth) is regular.
k The third person singular of say is says
1 Shined means 'polished': I've shined my shoes. Compare The sun shone.
m We use sped for movement.
They sped down the hill.
But we say speeded up (= went faster),
n Weave is regular when it expresses movement.
We weaved our way through the traffic.