Spoken English · Articles · October 21, 2026 · 9 min read

Irregular verbs list: 100 common English irregular verbs with past and past participle

Irregular verbs are verbs that do not form the past with -ed. Instead of play → played → played, you get go → went → gone or buy → bought → bought. Below is an irregular verbs list of 100 common verbs with all three forms: the base form (V1), the past simple (V2) and the past participle (V3). The verbs are grouped by pattern, because learning ten verbs that change the same way is much easier than learning a random alphabetical list.

Where each form is used

• V1, base form: present and future. I go to college by bus. I’ll go tomorrow.
• V2, past simple: finished actions in the past. I went to Mumbai last week.
• V3, past participle: perfect tenses and the passive. I’ve never gone abroad. / The bridge was built in 1990.

Most mistakes come from mixing V2 and V3: I have went, She has saw. The tables below keep the three columns side by side so you always see the pair.

Group 1: all three forms are the same (A–A–A)

The easiest group. Only the context tells you the tense.

Read is a special case: the spelling stays, but the pronunciation changes. V1 is /riːd/ (like reed), V2 and V3 are /red/ (like the colour red).

I read the news every morning. Yesterday I read an article about AI. Have you read it?

Group 2: past and participle are the same (A–B–B)

The largest group. Learn V2 and you get V3 for free.

Notice the mini-patterns: -ought/-aught (bought, thought, caught, taught), -ent (sent, spent, lent), -pt (kept, slept). Saying them in groups out loud helps them stick.

Group 3: all three forms are different (A–B–C)

This group needs the most practice, and it includes some of the most frequent verbs in English.

Two useful sound patterns here: i–a–u (begin–began–begun, drink–drank–drunk, sing–sang–sung, swim–swam–swum) and -ew/-own (know–knew–known, grow–grew–grown, fly–flew–flown).

Group 4: V1 and V3 are the same (A–B–A)

A small group, easy to remember.

She became a manager last year. She has become much more confident.

Verbs with two correct past forms

Some verbs have both an irregular and a regular form. British English tends to use the irregular one, American English the regular one. Both are correct, and both are common in India.

Pick one style and use it consistently in a piece of writing.

Example sentences with irregular verbs

Here is how the forms sound in everyday speech, including a mini job-interview answer.

Interviewer: Tell me about your last project. Candidate: I led a team of four. We built a small app for a local hospital. At first we ran into problems with the data, but we found a solution and sent the first version in two months. I’ve taught two new interns how to use it since then.

Everyday sentences:

• I forgot my charger at home.
• Have you ever eaten dosa in Chennai?
• The train left ten minutes late.
• I spent too much money last month.
• We’ve known each other since school.
• My phone fell and the screen broke.

Common mistakes

• I have went. After have/has/had, use V3: I have gone. Same with I have seen, She has done, We have eaten.
• Did you went? After did, use V1: Did you go? I didn’t see it. The past is already in did.
• I buyed / I teached. Regularising irregular verbs is natural for learners (children do it too), but it sounds wrong: bought, taught.
• Lie and lay. Lie (rest your body): lie–lay–lain. Lay (put something down): lay–laid–laid. I lay on the sofa (past of lie) vs I laid the book on the table (past of lay). In everyday speech, lie down and put avoid the problem.
• Been or gone? She has gone to Delhi = she is there now. She has been to Delhi = she visited and came back.

How to learn irregular verbs quickly

1. Learn the groups, not the alphabet. Ten -ought verbs at once beat ten random verbs.
2. Say the three forms as a rhythm: speak–spoke–spoken, out loud, several times. The sound pattern is what your memory keeps.
3. Use them in stories about the past. Tell someone what you did last weekend and you will need went, saw, ate, met, bought in two minutes. That is exactly the kind of chat you can have with Nomi in Nomto: if you say I have went, Nomi corrects it right away and shows the natural version.
4. Review a little every day. Fifteen verbs a day for a week covers this whole list.

Many phrasal verbs are built on irregular verbs (ran out, took over, fell behind), so the phrasal verbs list is a good next step. And if you are preparing for an exam, accurate past forms matter in IELTS Speaking Part 2, where you often tell a story; see the Part 2 cue card guide.

FAQ

How many irregular verbs are there in English?

Around 200 are in regular use, and many are rare or old-fashioned. The 100 above cover the vast majority of what you will read and say.

What are V1, V2 and V3?

Short names used in many Indian schools for the three forms: V1 is the base form (go), V2 is the past simple (went), V3 is the past participle (gone).

Is it “learnt” or “learned”?

Both are correct. Learnt is more British, learned is more American. As an adjective meaning “educated”, only learned is used: a learned professor.

Is “gotten” correct?

In American English, yes: I’ve gotten better at it. In British English, the participle is got: I’ve got better at it.

What is the fastest way to stop saying “I have went”?

Practise short answers to Have you ever…? questions out loud: Yes, I’ve been there. No, I’ve never seen it. After a few days the correct form starts coming first.

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