1
Say what makes a verb one of these
Its forms are not the ones Tense Tables produces. That is a test, not a feeling, and it decides the whole list.
Course · English
Irregular Verbs
Tense Tables built any verb from four rules. An irregular verb is one those rules do not reach. This is the list of them, and it is shorter than it looks, because 132 of the 133 verbs here fall into six patterns, be stands alone outside them, and three words carry more than half of the trouble.
133 verbs: six patterns, and be
past = the have-form 60
all three differ, -n 37
all three the same 21
all three differ, other 9
be, have, do: more than half of the trouble
What this course is about
- Subject
- English
- Lessons
- 3
- Format
- Interactive
Overview
What you will be able to do
By the end you can place an unfamiliar irregular verb in a pattern, and say how much of a page they really take up.
2
Sort a verb into one of six patterns
Decided by the three written forms: all the same, past and the form after have the same, all three different, and so on.
3
Name the pattern worth learning first
Sixty of the 133 have the same past and participle, so one form fewer to remember for nearly half the list.
4
Count how much of a real page they are
About one word in six on the printed passage, counted in the browser against the printed list.
5
Take out the three that bend every count
Be, have and do are about three in five of these words on the printed passage, 91 of 149. Taking them out cuts the share by more than half, 15.9% to 6.2%.
6
Tell a figure the page computes from one it quotes
Over the whole novel, counted once and quoted, the top twenty irregular verbs cover 87.66% or 73.90% of the irregular forms depending on whether those three are counted. The page cannot recount either, but it counts the same thing on its passage, 95.3% or 93.1%, and you can say why the shorter text gives the higher share.
Lessons
3 lessons
The list first, then the patterns inside it, then the question of how much of English it really is.
The Verbs That Break the RulesAbout 180 verbs ignore the -ed rule, and they include most of the verbs you use every day.Not marked
Six Patterns, Not One Hundred and EightySort the odd verbs by which of their three forms match, and six classes appear.Not marked
How Much of English Is IrregularOn a printed page about one word in six is an irregular verb form, and three verbs are more than half of those.Not marked
Recommended background
Tense Tables. An irregular verb is defined here as one whose forms the rules of Tense Tables do not produce, so those rules have to exist first. Nothing else is assumed and the number work is counting and shares.
Practice suggestions
Learn the pattern, not the verb. Six shapes is a smaller thing to hold than 133 separate words, and a pattern tells you how many forms to remember even when it does not tell you the letters.
Start at the top of the list. These verbs are common, which is why they survived; the commonest twenty do most of the work.
Watch the count when be, have and do leave the room. Every flattering number about irregular verbs depends on them, and the lab lets you take them out.
What it does not cover
Every one of them in English. The list here is the 133 that appear in the 2,800 commonest words. About fifty more exist that a learner meets rarely, and they are named as left out rather than quietly dropped.
Why these verbs are the way they are. The history is real and this course does not teach it, because nothing on the page could check it. What can be checked is that they are common, and the course shows that.
Verbs with two pasts, such as learnt and learned, or dream, which takes either form. The list gives one, and no rule could be scored on a choice the dictionary allows both ways.