An English verb can be regular or irregular. Regular verbs form their past and past participle forms by adding –ed.
Examples are given below.
Walk – walked – walked
Dance – danced – danced
Paint – painted – painted
Work – worked – worked
Irregular verbs form their past and past participle forms in different ways.
There are mainly three types of irregular verbs.
Verbs in which all the three forms are the same (e.g. put – put – put)
Verbs in which two of the three forms are the same (e.g. sit – sat – sat)
Verbs in which all three forms are different (e.g. drink – drank – drunk)
Some verbs can be both regular and irregular. Examples are:
Burn – burnt – burnt (irregular)
Burn – burned – burned (regular)
Dream – dreamt – dreamt (irregular)
Dream – dreamed – dreamed (regular)
Lean – lent – lent (irregular)
Lean – leaned – leaned (regular)
Learn – learnt – learnt (irregular)
Learn – learned – learned (regular)
Leap – leapt – leapt (irregular)
Leap – leaped – leaped (regular)
Smell – smelt – smelt (irregular)
Smell – smelled – smelled (regular)
Spill – spilt – spilt (irregular)
Spill – spilled – spilled (regular)
Spoil – spoilt – spoilt (irregular)
Spoil – spoiled – spoiled (regular)
Complete the following sentences using the past or past participle form of the verb given in the brackets.
1. It has been ages since I last ……………… him. (see)
2. The old man has ……………….. better days (see)
3. The cat ………………. all the milk. (drink)
4. The child has ………………… all the milk. (drink)
Answers
1. It has been ages since I last saw him.
2. The old man has seen better days
3. The cat drank all the milk.
4. The child has drunk all the milk.
