Difference Between Regular and Irregular Verbs

Verbs are those words which express the action or state of the subject in a sentence. There are certain forms which a verb can take, called as ‘principal parts of verbs‘, these are infinitive, third person present, simple past, past participle and present participle. If you take a glance at these forms, you’ll notice that there are some verbs whose simple past and past participle have a set or fixed ending which are called Regular Verbs.

Conversely, there are certain verbs which either change their forms completely or remain the same, these are known as Irregular Verbs. Let’s take a read of these examples to understand the difference between regular and irregular verbs:

Base form	Simple Past	Past Participle
Regular Verbs
Carry	Carried	Carried
Grab	Grabbed	Grabbed
Jump	Jumped	Jumped
Walk	Walked	Walked
Iregular Verbs
Break	Broke	Broken
Drink	Drank	Drunk
Eat	Ate	Eaten
Read	Read	Read

Content: Regular Verbs Vs Irregular Verbs

1. Comparison Chart
2. Definition
3. Key Differences
4. Examples
5. How to remember the difference

Comparison Chart

Basis for Comparison	Regular Verbs	Irregular Verbs
Meaning	Regular Verbs are the verbs with usual simple past and past participle forms.	Irregular verbs refers to the verbs which have same or different present and past tense forms.
Conjugation	Standard rules for conjugation	Special rules for conjugation
Example	Look-Looked-Looked	Break-broke-broken
	act-acted-acted	Know-Knew-Known
	stop-stopped-stopped	Put-put-put

Definition of Regular Verbs

Regular Verbs refers to the verbs that depend on the basic pattern of inflection (or inflexion). Inflection means the variation in the form of a word, usually in the end, to describe the tense, mood, number, gender and so forth.

The formation of tenses in regular verbs, particularly the past tense forms, i.e. simple past and past participle, is done by adding a predefined suffix, i.e., -d, -ed, or -ied to the present infinitive. The rules are given as under:

• When the action word ends with a vowel, then -d is added to convert it into past tense. For example:
  

  Base form	Simple Past	Past Participle
  Close	Closed	Closed
  Die	Died	Died
  Hate	Hated	Hated
  Sue	Sued	Sued

• But when it ends with a consonant, then -ed is added to change it into past form. For example:
  

  Base form	Simple Past	Past Participle
  Dress	Dressed	Dressed
  Rip	Ripped	Ripped
  Roll	Rolled	Rolled
  Slam	Slammed	Slammed

• If the last letter of the word ends with y, then -ied to change its form:
  

  Base form	Simple Past	Past Participle
  Bury	Buried	Buried
  Cry	Cried	Cried
  Fry	Fried	Fried

Definition of Irregular Verbs

An irregular verb is a type of strong verb, which has some special rules for creating past tense forms. So, these verbs do not end with -d, -ed, or -ied, rather they change their forms completely, in a sense that the irregular verbs are transformed into an entirely different word, as you can see in the example below:

Base form	Simple Past	Past Participle
Build	Built	Built
Catch	Caught	Caught
Do	Did	Done
Go	Went	Gone
Know	Knew	Known
Lie	Lay	Lain

Nevertheless, there are some verbs which do not change their forms at all, as given in the example below:

Base form	Simple Past	Past Participle
Bid	Bid	Bid
Cut	Cut	Cut
Hit	Hit	Hit
Let	Let	Let
Put	Put	Put

Examples

Base form	Simple Past	Past Participle
Regular Verbs
Aim	Aimed	Aimed
Ban	Banned	Banned
Clear	Cleared	Cleared
Dance	Danced	Danced
Fix	Fixed	Fixed
Happen	Happened	Happened
Help	Helped	Helped
Hurry	Hurried	Hurried
Live	Lived	Lived
Nod	Nodded	Nodded
Paint	Painted	Painted
Prefer	Preferred	Preferred
Pull	Pulled	Pulled
Raise	Raised	Raised
Scold	Scolded	Scolded
Thrive	Thrived	Thrived
Visit	Visited	Visited
Work	Worked	Worked
Irregular Verbs
Bend	Bent	Bent
Bite	Bit	Bitten
Choose	Chose	Chosen
Come	Came	Come
Draw	Drew	Drawn
Feel	Felt	Felt
Forget	Forgot	Forgotten
Give	Gave	Given
Grow	Grew	Grown
Rise	Rose	Risen
Sing	Sang	Sung
Take	Took	Taken
Write	Wrote	Written
Burst	Burst	Burst
Quit	Quit	Quit
Set	Set	Set
Shut	Shut	Shut
Split	Split	Split

How to remember the difference

The essential difference between regular and irregular verbs is that while regular verbs have a consistent or fixed ending when they are changed to past forms. As against, there is no such pattern followed in the case of irregular verbs, because they either entirely change their form or remains unchanged in the past tense.