English irregular verbs

English

Irregular

Verbs

McGRAW-HILL’S ESSENTIAL

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English

Irregular

Verbs

McGRAW-HILL’S ESSENTIAL

MARK LESTER, PH.D. • DANIEL FRANKLIN • TERRY YOKOTA

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Contents

Preface vii

The English Irregular Verb 1

 Summaries of verb formation, tense usage, complementation, and phrasal verbs

Regular vs. Irregular Verbs 1

Verb Forms and Tense Usage 1

The Six Basic Verb Forms 1

Base Form 1

Present 2

Past 3

Infinitive 4

Present Participle 5

Past Participle 5

Tense Formation and Usage 6

The Three Simple Tenses 6

The Three Perfect Tenses 7

The Three Progressive Tenses 8

The Intensive Tenses 9

The Passive Voice 10

Verb Complements 10

Complement Types 12

Single Grammatical Element Complements 12

Multiple Grammatical Element Complements 13

Phrasal Verbs 13

Separable and Inseparable Phrasal Verbs 14

The Most Common Phrasal Particles 16

Verbs of Motion 17

Expressions 17

chart Guide to Conjugations 18

chart Guide to Complements and Phrasal Verbs 19

188 English Irregular Verbs 21

 Alphabetically ordered, with conjugations, complements, phrasal verbs,

and expressions

Top 30 Verbs: Full page of examples adjoining select conjugation/complement

pages

Irregular Verb Form Index 241

 Index showing the base form of all irregular verb forms in the book

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Preface

McGraw-Hill’s Essential English Irregular Verbs contains basic conjugations and compre￾hensive usage patterns for 188 irregular verbs—all the irregular verbs that you are likely to

encounter in even the most extensive reading. We have excluded only archaic and rarely

used verbs, like shrive (“offer the religious rite of confession to”) and smite (“to attack and

kill/defeat,” usually encountered only in the King James Bible of 1611).

In addition to the basic conjugation of each verb, McGraw-Hill’s Essential English

Irregular Verbs provides two unique features:

• A complete listing of the complements for each verb

Verb complements are grammatical structures that verbs use to make correct, meaningful

sentences. Irregular verbs in English have 16 basic complements, plus dozens of combina￾tions of these. For instance, the verb make, when it means “force, cause,” uses two comple￾ments together: an object and an infinitive. The infinitive, however, must be in its base

form, that is, used without the to that normally accompanies an infinitive.

object  base-form infinitive The teacher made the students sit quietly.

Most English learners, even advanced ones, make the mistake of using to with the in￾finitive, because that is the more common complement. McGraw-Hill’s Essential English

Irregular Verbs and its companion, The Big Book of English Verbs, are the only books that

provide the correct complement in a useful format.

• A listing of the important phrasal verb constructions for each verb

Phrasal verbs are idiomatic combinations of verbs plus adverbs or prepositions. For exam￾ple, the phrasal verb show up can mean “to arrive,” even though nothing in the meaning of

show or up would lead you to expect this meaning.

Moreover, there are important grammatical differences between phrasal verbs that

consist of a verb  an adverb (separable phrasal verbs) and those that consist of a verb 

a preposition (inseparable phrasal verbs). If the second element in a phrasal verb is an

adverb, the adverb can (and in some cases must) be placed after the object. If the second

element is a preposition, however, it can never be moved away from the verb. McGraw￾Hill’s Essential English Irregular Verbs not only gives the meaning of every phrasal verb, but

also indicates which combinations are separable and which are inseparable.

A 2007 study by Harvard scientists revealed that, over the centuries, English irregular

verbs have been slowly becoming regular. Help and work were once irregular verbs! The

scientists predict that wed will probably be the next irregular verb to become completely

regular: Wed ~ wed ~ have wed will become wed ~ wedded ~ have wedded. The more com￾mon irregular verbs, like be and come, will take thousands of years to become regular. In

the meantime, you have McGraw-Hill’s Essential English Irregular Verbs to help you use all

of these important verbs correctly.

Mark Lester

Daniel Franklin

Terry Yokota

vii

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1

The English Irregular Verb

REGULAR VS. IRREGULAR VERBS

A regular verb forms its past tense and past participle by adding -d or -ed to its base form.

This ending may be pronounced /d/ (cared, happened, viewed), /ud/ (committed, needed,

listed), or /t/ (mixed, searched, slipped). See pages 3–4 for details.

An irregular verb forms its past tense or past participle, or both, in an unpredictable

way: by adding no ending at all, by changing the vowel of the base form, by adding a dif￾ferent ending, or by using a combination of these methods (let ~ let ~ have let, meet ~

met ~ have met, swim ~ swam ~ swum, blow ~ blew ~ have blown).

A verb is irregular based on its pronunciation, not on its spelling; for example, lay

(laid ~ have laid) and pay (paid ~ have paid) are regular, because they add /d/ to their base

forms for their past tense and past participle—like stay (stayed ~ have stayed)—even

though the ayed is spelled aid.

Compound verbs, like overeat (< eat), outsell (< sell), and withhold (< hold), form their

past tenses and past participles like their root verbs; for example, overeat ~ overate ~ have

overeaten. A few high-frequency compound verbs, like broadcast, overcome, and under￾stand, are included in the 188 irregular verbs presented here.

Verb formS and tense usage

The Six Basic Verb Forms

Six basic verb forms are used to create the entire tense system of English: base form, pres￾ent, past, infinitive, present participle, and past participle. These forms are illustrated in

the following chart by the regular verb walk and the irregular verb fly.

base form walk fly

present walk | walks fly | flies

past walked flew

infinitive to walk to fly

present participle walking flying

past participle walked flown

See “Guide to Conjugations” on page 18.

Base Form

The base form of a verb is its form in a dictionary entry. For example, if you looked up

sang, the dictionary would refer you to the base form sing.

The base form is also the source (or base) for the present (with a few exceptions),

infinitive, and present participle of the verb, whether the verb is regular or irregular.

The base form is used as a verb in three ways.

(1) It follows certain helping verbs, the most important being the modal auxiliary

verbs, or modals for short: can/could, may/might, will/would, shall/should, and must.

(Modal verbs themselves have no base form, infinitive, present participle, or past partici￾ple; they have only present and past forms.) Note the base form of the verb be in the fol￾lowing sentences.

2 VERB FORMS AND TENSE USAGE

I may be a little late.

He will be in New York all week.

You must be more careful.

Other verbs followed by the base form of a verb include dare (with not), need (with not),

and help.

We need not be silent on the issue.

(2) The base form is used in imperatives (commands).

Be good!

Come here, please.

Ring the bell.

(3) Less commonly, the base form is used as a complement of certain verbs.

object  base-form infinitive The queen made the guests wait in the hall.

A base-form infinitive is an infinitive minus the to. If an infinitive including the word to

were substituted for the base-form infinitive in the example above, the resulting sentence

would be ungrammatical.

X The queen made the guests to wait in the hall.

Present

With the sole exception of the verb be, the present form of all verbs, including irregular

verbs, is derived directly from the base form. The main difference between the present and

base forms is that the third-person singular present form adds -s or -es to the base form of

the verb; all other present forms are identical to the base form.

The base form of be is different from all of its present tense forms.

singular plural

first person I am we are

second person you are you are

third person he/she/it is they are

Both the pronunciation and the spelling of the third-person singular present ending

are predictable. If the base form ends in a sibilant sound (s, z, x, sh, ch, tch, or j (as in

judge)), the ending is pronounced as a separate syllable rhyming with buzz. The ending is

spelled -es, unless the base form already ends in -e, in which case only -s is added.

third-person singular

base form present form

lose loses

freeze freezes

beseech beseeches

catch catches

If the base form ends in a voiceless consonant sound other than a sibilant, the ending

is pronounced /s/ and is spelled -es. The voiceless consonants are usually spelled with a

p, t, ck, k, f, or gh (when pronounced /f/).

keep keeps

beat beats

seek seeks

take takes

VERB FORMS AND TENSE USAGE 3

If the base form ends in a voiced consonant other than a sibilant or in a pronounced

vowel (as opposed to a silent final -e), the ending is pronounced /z/ and is spelled -s.

forbid forbids

bend bends

dig digs

feel feels

swim swims

mean means

prove proves

pay pays

flee flees

fly flies

throw throws

strew strews

Note that if the base form ends in -y without a preceding vowel, the -y changes to -ie before

the -s ending (see fly above).

A few verbs have irregular third-person singular present forms.

be is

have has

Two verbs have irregular pronunciations in the third-person singular present form.

do does (rhymes with buzz)

say says (rhymes with fez)

Past

There are two types of past forms: regular and irregular.

Regular verbs form the past tense by adding -ed to the base form (or simply -d if the

base form already ends in -e).

base form regular past form

open opened

place placed

The regular past ending has three different, but completely predictable, pronuncia￾tions. If the base form ends in a /t/ or /d/ sound, the -ed is pronounced as a separate syl￾lable rhyming with bud.

past form pronounced

base form as a separate syllable

vote voted

decide decided

If the base form ends in a voiceless consonant sound other than /t/, the -ed is pro￾nounced /t/. The final voiceless consonants are usually spelled with a p, ck, k, s, sh, ch, tch,

x, f, or gh (when pronounced /f/).

base form past form pronounced as /t/

tap tapped

attack attacked

miss missed

match matched

cough coughed

4 VERB FORMS AND TENSE USAGE

Note that if the base form ends in a single consonant preceded by a stressed short vowel,

the consonant is usually doubled to form the past: permit ~ permitted, stop ~ stopped.

If the base form ends in a pronounced vowel or in a voiced consonant sound other

than /d/, the -ed is pronounced /d/. The voiced consonants are usually spelled with a b, g,

z, j, m, n, l, or r.

base form past form pronounced as /d/

tie tied

enjoy enjoyed

kill killed

care cared

Note that if the base form ends in -y without a preceding vowel, the -y changes to -ie before

the -d ending (cry ~ cried). Also note the spellings of the past forms of lay and pay: laid

and paid, respectively.

The past forms of irregular verbs reflect older patterns of forming the past tense. These

patterns have merged to such an extent that it is not practical to learn the past forms of

irregular verbs on the basis of their historical patterns. Similarities exist, however, in how

some irregular verbs form the past tense.

vowel change ring rang sing sang

vowel change 1 -d sell sold tell told

vowel change 1 -t feel felt kneel knelt

keep kept sleep slept sweep swept

no change bet bet put put rid rid

Following are the past forms of the 13 most common verbs in English, all irregular.

base form past form

be was | were

have had

do did

say said (rhymes with fed)

make made

go went

take took

come came

see saw

know knew

give gave

get got

find found

Infinitive

The infinitive of a verb consists of to 1 its base form. There are no exceptions—even the

verb be is regular: to be.

base form infinitive

be to be

fly to fly

spend to spend

Infinitives are used as complements of certain verbs.

I would like to meet your friend.

They invited us to spend the night.

VERB FORMS AND TENSE USAGE 5

Present Participle

The present participle is formed by adding -ing to the base form.

base form present participle

be being

do doing

fly flying

spend spending

Note that if a verb ends in a single consonant preceded by a stressed short vowel, the con￾sonant is usually doubled: bet ~ betting, dig ~ digging, forbid ~ forbidding. If a verb ends in

silent -e, the -e is dropped before the -ing ending: come ~ coming, have ~ having, write ~

writing.

The present participle is used in two ways. By far the more common is after a form of

the verb be in the progressive tenses.

The kids were going to the beach.

I am flying to Chicago tomorrow.

Less common is the present participle’s use as a complement of certain verbs.

I hate doing the dishes every night.

I saw Holly speaking with Christopher.

Past Participle

There are two types of past participles: regular and irregular.

Regular past participles are formed in exactly the same way as the regular past, that is,

by adding -ed to the base form. To distinguish the two forms, remember that the past form

can occur by itself, but the past participle almost always occurs after a form of be or have.

Like irregular past forms, irregular past participle forms are unpredictable. There is

one generalization, however, that we can make about them. In older periods of English,

most irregular past participles ended in -en. Today, about one third of irregular past par￾ticiples still retain this -en ending. Thus, if an irregular verb form has an -en (or -n) end￾ing, we know it is a past participle.

base form past participle

choose chosen

eat eaten

fly flown

see seen

speak spoken

Past participles are used in three ways in English.

(1) They are used in the perfect tenses after the helping verb have.

They have flown in from Pittsburgh for the wedding.

We had shut the window earlier.

He will have broken every record.

(2) Past participles are used in passive sentences after the helping verb be.

Skirmishes are being fought at the border.

Her play was seen by thousands of people.

(3) Much less common is the past participle’s use as a complement of certain verbs.

We need the car taken to the garage for an oil change.

6 VERB FORMS AND TENSE USAGE

Tense Formation and Usage

The term tense can have several different meanings, but we use tense to refer to any of the

nine different verb constructions that result when the three logical time divisions (pres -

ent, past, and future) are integrated with the three aspect categories of verbs (simple, per￾fect, and progressive—simple here means that it is not perfect or progressive). These nine

tenses are illustrated in the following chart, with the first-person singular form of fly.

simple perfect progressive

present I fly I have flown I am flying

past I flew I had flown I was flying

future I will fly I will have flown I will be flying

The Three Simple Tenses

present tense

The most confusing feature of the present tense for English learners is that the simple

present tense does not actually signify present time. Its three main uses are the following:

(1) making factual statements and generalizations, (2) describing habitual actions, and

(3) describing predictable future events or actions.

(1) The simple present tense is used to state objective facts that are not restricted by

time.

A mile is 5,280 feet.

The sun rises in the east and sets in the west.

Similarly, the simple present tense is used to state facts that are true for the foreseeable

future.

She teaches algebra.

This sentence means, “She hasn’t always taught algebra, and at some point in the future,

she may teach another subject. Nevertheless, it is likely that she will continue teaching

algebra indefinitely.” Contrast this sentence with the following one, which uses the present

progressive tense.

She is teaching algebra.

This sentence means, “She is only teaching algebra temporarily, and she expects to teach

another subject eventually.”

The simple present tense is also used to make generalizations that are considered valid

for the foreseeable future.

I know Latin and Greek.

Sneezing spreads germs.

(2) The simple present tense is used to describe habitual actions.

Bob reads his e-mail first thing in the morning.

This sentence describes what Bob normally does first thing in the morning. It does not

mean that Bob is reading his e-mail now, at this very moment. The sentence would still be

valid if Bob were on vacation and hadn’t read his e-mail in a week.

(3) The simple present tense is often used for near-future events or actions that one

expects to happen.

Our flight leaves at nine.

I go home on Sunday.