irregular verb

A verb that does not follow the usual rules for verb forms. Also known as a strong verb.

Verbs in English are irregular if they don't have a conventional -ed form (like asked or ended). Contrast with Regular Verb.

See also:

• Introduction to Irregular Verbs
• Principal Parts of Irregular Verbs


• Building an Essay With Irregular Verbs
• Conjugal Conjugations
• Editing Exercise: Correcting Problems With Irregular Verbs
• Principal Parts of a Verb
• Proofreading for Tense Errors
• Ten Quick Questions and Answers About Verbs and Verbals in English
• What Is the Difference Between a Weak Verb and a Strong Verb?

Examples & Observations:

• "Throughout my career I swam for form. Speed came as a result."
  (Johnny Weissmuller)



• "Education is what remains after one has forgotten everything he learned in school."
  (Albert Einstein)



• "My work always tried to unite the true with the beautiful; but when I had to choose one or the other, I usually chose the beautiful."
  (Tom Stoppard)



• "At first glance irregular verbs would seem to have no reason to live. Why should language have forms that are just cussed exceptions to a rule? . . .
  
  "Irregular forms are just words. If our language faculty has a knack for memorizing words, it should have no inhibitions about memorizing past-tense forms at the same time. These are the verbs we call irregular, and they are a mere 180 additions to a mental lexicon that already numbers in the tens or hundreds of thousands."
  (Steven Pinker, Words and Rules. Basic, 1999)



• "A boy who swims may say he swum,
  But milk is skimmed and seldom skum,
  And nails you trim; they are not trum.
  
  "When words you speak, these words are spoken,
  But a nose is tweaked and can't be twoken.
  And what you seek is seldom soken.
  
  "If we forget, then we've forgotten,
  But things we wet are never wotten,
  And houses let cannot be lotten.
  
  "The things one sells are always sold,
  But fog dispelled are not dispold,
  And what you smell is never smold.
  
  "When young, a top you oft saw spun,
  But did you see a grin ever grun,
  Or a potato neatly skun?"
  (anonymous, "Verbs Is Funny")