Question 1

Why does English have irregular verbs?

Accepted Answer

Irregular verbs are the oldest verbs in English, inherited from Old English and Germanic. Because they were used constantly, their forms "fossilized" before the regular -ed rule was adopted. There aren't many of them, but they're the most frequent: go, have, say, come, get, make, know, think, see, take make up a huge part of everyday English.

Question 2

How many irregular verbs are there in English?

Accepted Answer

There are around 200 common irregular verbs, but in practice at the A1-B1 level you only need to know about 30-50. The 10 most used (go/went, have/had, say/said, come/came, get/got, make/made, know/knew, think/thought, see/saw, take/took) cover a huge portion of everyday English.

Question 3

How do I learn irregular verbs faster?

Accepted Answer

In pairs or groups with similar patterns: go/went, come/came (movement); find/found, bind/bound (action + change); think/thought, buy/bought, bring/brought (same -ought ending). It also helps to hear them in context, not just memorize lists. Use them in sentences with real meaning to you.

Question 4

Are there verbs that are the same in the present and the past?

Accepted Answer

Yes. Some irregular verbs have the same form in the present and the past: put/put, cut/cut, read/read (though this last one changes pronunciation: /riːd/ in the present, /rɛd/ in the past). There aren't many, but you'll come across them.

Question 5

'Said' or 'told'? Which one do I use?

Accepted Answer

'Say' and 'tell' both mean to say something, but they're used differently. 'Said' is followed by what was said, or by 'that': 'She said she was tired'. 'Told' is followed by the person who was told: 'She told me she was tired'. If there's no explicit person, use 'said'. If there's a person, use 'told'.

Question 6

Does the irregular past change depending on the subject?

Accepted Answer

No. This is one advantage of English: irregular verbs have the same form for every subject in the past. 'I went, he went, they went'. Same as regular verbs. Only the verb 'to be' is different: was/were.