Irregular English Verbs – Main Forms & Simple Definitions

Common irregular English verbs, each shown with its three main forms — base, past, and past participle — plus a short, clear definition.

▶16:43 🎬 Watch: 67 irregular verbs in pictures (A1–A2) Hear all three forms of each verb on this list, one picture at a time, with a pause to answer before the forms are read out. ▶13:06 🎬 Then: 51 more irregular verbs (A2–B1) 51 more verbs in the same format, once the first set is comfortable.

🖼️ Prefer pictures? Irregular verbs picture dictionary — 67 verbs, all three forms spoken 51 more irregular verbs in pictures (A2–B1)

🎬 On this site: Every grammar video, listed in order

🎯 New: drill these forms with the Irregular Verb Trainer — flashcards and type-the-forms quizzes, grouped by pattern and difficulty level.

• Being & States
• arise, arose, arisen – to start or happen, often suddenly
• awake, awoke, awoken – to stop sleeping and open your eyes
• be, was, were, been – to exist, live, or be present somewhere
• bear, bore, borne – to carry, support, or give birth (also "born" for giving birth)
• become, became, become – to change and be something different
• begin, began, begun – to start doing something
• do, did, done – to act or perform any action
• forsake, forsook, forsaken – to leave someone or something forever
• have, had, had – to own, hold, or possess something
• lie, lay, lain – to rest flat on a surface, like on a bed
• rise, rose, risen – to go up higher or stand up
• undergo, underwent, undergone – to experience something difficult or important
• undertake, undertook, undertaken – to agree to do something hard or important
• Motion & Movement
• bend, bent, bent – to make something not straight or to move your body down
• bring, brought, brought – to carry something or someone with you to a place
• come, came, come – to move towards the place where the speaker is
• creep, crept, crept – to move slowly and quietly, close to the ground
• dive, dove, dived – to jump into water with your head first (also: dived for the past)
• drive, drove, driven – to control a car or other vehicle and make it move
• fall, fell, fallen – to drop down to the ground, often by accident
• fly, flew, flown – to move in the air, like a bird or airplane
• go, went, gone – to move from one place to another
• lead, led, led – to go first and show others the way
• leave, left, left – to go away from a place or person
• run, ran, run – to move quickly on your feet
• sit, sat, sat – to be on a chair or seat with your body down
• stand, stood, stood – to be on your feet, not sitting
• swim, swam, swum – to move through water using arms and legs
• swing, swung, swung – to move back and forth, like on a swing
• take, took, taken – to pick up and carry something away
• thrust, thrust, thrust – to push something hard and fast
• wind, wound, wound – to turn or twist something around
• Possession & Exchange
• buy, bought, bought – to get something by paying money
• cost, cost, cost – to have a price or require money to get
• give, gave, given – to let someone have something you own
• hold, held, held – to have something in your hand or arms
• keep, kept, kept – to have and not lose something
• lay, laid, laid – to put something down flat and carefully
• lend, lent, lent – to let someone use something for a short time
• lose, lost, lost – to stop having something because you cannot find it
• make, made, made – to create or build something new
• overtake, overtook, overtaken – to go past someone or something that is moving
• pay, paid, paid – to give money for something you buy or use
• put, put, put – to move something to a place and leave it there
• quit, quit, quit – to stop doing something you are doing
• sell, sold, sold – to give something to someone for money
• send, sent, sent – to make something go to another place or person
• set, set, set – to put something in a position or place
• spend, spent, spent – to use money to buy things, or use time for an activity
• steal, stole, stolen – to take something that is not yours, secretly or by force
• upset, upset, upset – to make someone feel sad, worried, or angry
• win, won, won – to be the best or finish first in a game or contest
• Creation, Construction & Destruction
• break, broke, broken – to separate something into pieces by force
• build, built, built – to make something by joining parts together
• catch, caught, caught – to grab or hold something moving, like a ball
• cut, cut, cut – to use something sharp to divide or open something
• draw, drew, drawn – to make a picture with a pen, pencil, or crayon
• grind, ground, ground – to crush something into small pieces or powder
• slit, slit, slit – to make a long, thin cut in something
• split, split, split – to break something into two or more parts
• tear, tore, torn – to pull something apart or make a hole by pulling
• throw, threw, thrown – to send something through the air with your hand
• weave, wove, woven – to make cloth by crossing threads
• Communication & Thought
• choose, chose, chosen – to pick one thing from many
• find, found, found – to discover something you were looking for
• forget, forgot, forgotten – to not remember something
• forgive, forgave, forgiven – to stop being angry with someone who did something wrong
• know, knew, known – to have information in your mind
• mean, meant, meant – to show or explain the idea of something
• meet, met, met – to see and speak to someone for the first time, or as planned
• mislay, mislaid, mislaid – to put something in the wrong place and lose it for a short time
• mistake, mistook, mistaken – to think something is something else, to be wrong about it
• read, read, read – to look at and understand written words
• say, said, said – to speak words out loud
• seek, sought, sought – to look for something (a formal word)
• sing, sang, sung – to make music with your voice
• speak, spoke, spoken – to talk to someone using words
• teach, taught, taught – to help someone learn something
• tell, told, told – to give information or a story to someone with words
• think, thought, thought – to use your mind to have ideas or make decisions
• understand, understood, understood – to know what something means
• write, wrote, written – to put words on paper or screen
• Senses & Perception
• broadcast, broadcast, broadcast – to send news, music, or information on TV or radio
• feel, felt, felt – to sense something by touch or inside your body
• hear, heard, heard – to notice a sound with your ears
• ring, rang, rung – to make a sound like a bell or phone
• see, saw, seen – to notice something with your eyes
• shine, shone, shone – to give off light, like the sun or a lamp
• shrink, shrank, shrunk – to become smaller in size
• slide, slid, slid – to move smoothly across a surface
• sting, stung, stung – to hurt with a sharp point, like a bee or insect
• stink, stank, stunk – to have a bad smell
• Physical Actions & Body
• beat, beat, beaten – to hit again and again
• bite, bit, bitten – to cut or hold with your teeth
• bleed, bled, bled – to lose blood from your body
• blow, blew, blown – to push air out with your mouth, or to move air like the wind
• dig, dug, dug – to make a hole in the ground
• drink, drank, drunk – to take liquid into your mouth and swallow it
• eat, ate, eaten – to put food in your mouth, chew it, and swallow it
• feed, fed, fed – to give food to a person or animal
• fight, fought, fought – to use force to try to hurt someone, or to argue
• forbid, forbade, forbidden – to order someone not to do something
• hang, hung, hung – to attach something at the top so it does not touch the ground
• hide, hid, hidden – to put something or yourself where others cannot find
• hit, hit, hit – to touch someone or something hard with your hand or an object
• hurt, hurt, hurt – to cause pain to someone or yourself
• ride, rode, ridden – to sit on and control something that moves, like a bike or horse
• shake, shook, shaken – to move something quickly up and down or side to side
• shut, shut, shut – to close something, like a door or window
• sleep, slept, slept – to rest your body and mind at night
• sweep, swept, swept – to clean a floor with a broom or brush
• wake, woke, woken – to stop sleeping and open your eyes
• wear, wore, worn – to have clothes or shoes on your body
• weep, wept, wept – to cry because you are sad
• Change & Results
• freeze, froze, frozen – to turn from liquid into ice, or become very cold
• grow, grew, grown – to become bigger, taller, or older
• overcome, overcame, overcome – to succeed against a problem or difficulty
• sink, sank, sunk – to go down below the surface, usually in water
• spread, spread, spread – to cover a larger area or to move out from one place
• stick, stuck, stuck – to be joined to something so it does not move easily
• strew, strewed, strewn – to scatter or spread things all over an area
• swell, swelled, swollen – to get larger, especially from injury
• Other Irregular Verbs
• bet, bet, bet – to risk money on a game or the result of something
• bind, bound, bound – to tie something very tightly with rope or string
• breed, bred, bred – to help animals have babies
• burst, burst, burst – to break open quickly and suddenly
• cast, cast, cast – to throw something far, or to choose an actor for a part
• deal, dealt, dealt – to give out playing cards, or to do business
• fit, fit, fit – to be the right size or shape for something
• fling, flung, flung – to throw something hard and quickly
• forecast, forecast, forecast – to say what the weather or future will be like
• knit, knit, knit – to make things with yarn and needles (also regular: knitted)
• let, let, let – to allow someone to do something
• light, lit, lit – to give light to, or start something burning
• rid, rid, rid – to remove something unwanted
• shoot, shot, shot – to fire a gun or move something quickly by force
• show, showed, shown – to let someone see
• slay, slew, slain – to kill someone in a violent way (old/literary word)
• sow, sowed, sown – to plant seeds
• spin, spun, spun – to turn around in circles very fast
• spring, sprang, sprung – to jump or move up very quickly
• strive, strove, striven – to try very hard to do something difficult
• swear, swore, sworn – to make a serious promise, or to use bad language
• Less Common and Specialized
• befall, befell, befallen – (of something bad) to happen to someone or something
• forswear, forswore, forsworn – to formally promise to stop doing something forever
• handwrite, handwrote, handwritten – to write by hand, not by typing
• input, input, input – to enter data or information into a computer or device
• offset, offset, offset – to balance out the effect of something; to counteract
• overdo, overdid, overdone – to do something too much or for too long
• overeat, overate, overeaten – to eat too much food, especially at one time
• overhear, overheard, overheard – to accidentally hear what other people are saying
• preset, preset, preset – to set or adjust something in advance, before use
• sublet, sublet, sublet – to rent out a property that you are already renting from someone else
• telecast, telecast, telecast – to broadcast a program or event on television
• typeset, typeset, typeset – to arrange and prepare text for printing or publishing
• withhold, withheld, withheld – to refuse to give something that is expected or needed
• Irregular Verbs with US and UK Differences
• burn, burned, burned – to destroy with fire (UK: burnt, burnt)
• dream, dreamed, dreamed – to see pictures in your mind while sleeping (UK: dreamt, dreamt)
• get, got, gotten – to receive, become, or arrive (UK: got, got)
• kneel, knelt, knelt – to be on your knees (also: kneeled, kneeled)
• lean, leaned, leaned – to rest against something (UK: leant, leant)
• leap, leaped, leaped – to jump (UK: leapt, leapt)
• learn, learned, learned – to get knowledge (UK: learnt, learnt)
• prove, proved, proven – to show something is true (UK: proved, proved)
• smell, smelled, smelled – to sense by nose (UK: smelt, smelt)
• sneak, sneaked, sneaked – to move quietly so no one sees you (US also "snuck"; UK: sneaked)
• spell, spelled, spelled – to say or write the letters (UK: spelt, spelt)
• spit, spit, spit – to force something out of your mouth (also: spat, spat)
• spoil, spoiled, spoiled – to make something go bad or ruin it (UK: spoilt, spoilt)