List of irregular verbs in English and Spanish with pronunciation and downloadable PDF

English can sometimes be difficult to learn because it is full of nuances or exceptions that can be hard for students to understand and assimilate. And one of the most difficult aspects for intermediate English students to internalise is irregular verbs, which do not follow typical conjugation rules.

In this post, I am going to explain what irregular verbs are, how they are used, and I am going to give you an extensive list of irregular verbs in PDF for download.

By the end of the post, you will have a doctorate in irregular verbs. Although, all you’ll have left to do is memorise them and use them correctly. 😂

What are irregular verbs in English?

Irregular verbs in English are those verbs that do not follow the normal rules of conjugation. The peculiarity of irregular verbs is that they form the past simple and the past participle in their own way, without adding -ed.

For example, the verb «write» is irregular in English, because in the past simple we say wrote and its past participle is written. This change is unpredictable, as it does not follow the norm for regular verbs.

It is important to learn these forms by heart as they cannot be deduced from general conjugation rules. There’s no other way!

Difference between regular and irregular verbs in English

The difference between regular and irregular verbs in English is the way their past simple and past participle are conjugated.

While regular verbs always follow the same pattern, ending in -ed when in the past (e.g., play [infinitive] → played [past simple] → played [past participle]), irregular verbs are unpredictable, as they usually do not end in -ed and do not necessarily follow the same pattern among themselves.

List of irregular verbs in English with pronunciation and Spanish translation

Below is the complete list of verbs with irregular forms. To listen to their pronunciation, simply press PLAY below. Don’t forget to download the complete list and this article at the end of the post.

Irregular verbs with phonetic transcription

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

What is the past participle?

The past participle of a verb in English is a verb form that is typically used in perfect tenses (e.g., «I have eaten») and in the passive voice (e.g., «The pie was eaten»).

For regular verbs, the past participle is formed by adding the suffix «-ed» to the base form of the verb (e.g., «walk» becomes «walked»). However, irregular verbs, as seen in the list, have unique past participles that do not follow this pattern (e.g., «go» becomes «gone», not «goed«).

One of the most common questions when we start studying irregular verbs is what on earth the past participle is. So remember: the past participle is not a tense but a verb form used to construct perfect tenses and the passive voice, among other things.

How many irregular verbs are there?

In English, there are more than 150 irregular verbs. It’s difficult to count them because depending on the variant of English, some verbs are constructed regularly or irregularly, as you can see in the list of verbs in this article. But, in general, we usually say there are more than 150 in total.

Where do irregular verbs come from?

Wouldn’t it be much simpler to change the language so that all verbs followed the same pattern? In theory, yes, but language is more complicated. English, in particular, is a melting pot of all the languages used by different invaders during the formation of the language.

Almost all irregular verbs correspond to Old English, derived from Germanic roots. They are part of the heritage of the language and the people and are incredibly important from a cultural point of view.

How do you know if a verb is regular or irregular in English?

It’s almost always easy: if the past simple and the past participle end in -ed, the verb is regular. If not, it is irregular. Be careful, though, because some verbs in the list, like learn or burn, accept both forms (learned and learnt). And if you only look at the infinitive, there is no rule that tells you for sure, but there are patterns that help with many verbs, as you will see a little further down.

How to learn irregular verbs in English

Memorising irregular verbs in English can be a challenge, but with some simple tips and tricks, you can quickly master all the most commonly used ones. Here are the 10 tips I always give my students:

1. Make a list of the most common irregular verbs and read it regularly. Although you can download lists from the internet, like the one I give you below, it’s important that you create your own list with the most common ones at your level. In addition, you can use my irregular verb conjugator in English to consult it when you have any doubts.
2. Create flashcards, physical or digital, to practise quickly. This way you can review a bit when you’re out and about and have some free time: on the bus, the underground, etc.
3. Practise in writing and orally conjugating irregular verbs in different tenses and sentences. This is essential!
4. Learn from your mistakes. When you make mistakes with irregular verbs, write them down in a list to review. Only then will you manage to avoid making the same mistakes again and again!
5. Use mnemonics or memory techniques to help you remember the forms of irregular verbs. For example, you can use colours to classify irregular verbs according to the «pattern» they follow. I talk about this right below, you’ll see how practical it is.
6. Use online apps or games that help you practise and memorise irregular verbs.
7. Look for songs with subtitles that use irregular verbs and try to learn them. Besides helping you with vocabulary or pronunciation, it will be easier for you to memorise the irregular forms of the verbs.
8. Use irregular verbs in your daily conversations so that you get used to using them and find them easier to remember.
9. Be consistent and work regularly. Consistency is essential to memorise irregular verbs and to find it easy to use them when you need them. Remember that it is not just about passing an exam, but about learning a language.
10. Don’t give up! Don’t get discouraged if at first you find it difficult to remember the forms of irregular verbs. Practise regularly and you will see that little by little it becomes easier to remember them.

Patterns in irregular verbs: learn them in families

Although every irregular verb has its own history, many of them look alike. If you group them by patterns instead of memorising them one by one, you will learn the forms much faster. To see it, look at how many of the three forms (infinitive, past simple and past participle) are the same:

Families within each pattern

Inside the big groups there are subgroups with very recognisable endings. These are the most useful ones:

• -ought / -aught (A-B-B): bring → brought, buy → bought, catch → caught, fight → fought, seek → sought, teach → taught, think → thought.
• Ending in -t with a shorter vowel (A-B-B): keep → kept, sleep → slept, sweep → swept, feel → felt, deal → dealt, mean → meant.
• Final -d becomes -t (A-B-B): bend → bent, lend → lent, send → sent, spend → spent, build → built.
• Shorter vowel (A-B-B): feed → fed, lead → led, meet → met, bleed → bled, flee → fled.
• Vowel changes to u (A-B-B): dig → dug, stick → stuck, swing → swung, sting → stung, cling → clung, win → won.
• i → a → u (A-B-C): sing → sang → sung, drink → drank → drunk, swim → swam → swum, begin → began → begun, ring → rang → rung, sink → sank → sunk.
• Participle ending in -n or -en (A-B-C): break → broke → broken, speak → spoke → spoken, steal → stole → stolen, choose → chose → chosen, freeze → froze → frozen, wake → woke → woken, forget → forgot → forgotten.
• Past simple in -ew (A-B-C): know → knew → known, grow → grew → grown, throw → threw → thrown, blow → blew → blown, fly → flew → flown, draw → drew → drawn.
• The loners: be, go and do. You have to learn these by heart, but you will use them so much that they will stick on their own.

Also, verbs with a prefix are conjugated like the base verb: stand → stood, so understand → understood; draw → drew, so withdraw → withdrew; the same goes for undo, overcome or mistake.

Watch out for these verbs

• read is spelled the same in all three forms, but it is pronounced differently: /riːd/ → /rɛd/ → /rɛd/.
• lie meaning “to recline” is irregular (lie → lay → lain), but meaning “to tell a lie” it is regular (lie → lied → lied). And do not mix it up with lay (“to put”: lay → laid → laid). If you get confused, the difference between LIE and LAY is explained in detail.
• rise (“to go up”) is irregular and takes no object, while raise (“to lift something”) is regular: raise → raised → raised.
• hang is irregular (hang → hung → hung) when you hang an object, but regular (hang → hanged → hanged) when we talk about executing a person.
• Two possible forms: burn, dream, learn, spell, spill, spoil, leap, kneel or light accept both the regular (-ed) and the irregular (-t) form. The -t form is more common in British English and the regular one in American English.

Irregular verbs exercises

You now know the list and the patterns, so it is time for what really makes the forms stick: practice. Below you have four interactive exercises that go from recognising the correct form to spotting typical mistakes. They mark themselves, so you will know straight away how you did. Good luck!

And if you prefer a version in text that you can copy and paste, you have it down here 👇

Exercise 1: choose the correct form

Choose the correct form of the verb to complete each sentence.

Exercise 2: Past Simple

Complete the sentences with the Past Simple form of the verbs in brackets.

Exercise 3: past participles

Complete each sentence with the past participle of one of the verbs in the box. Use each verb once.

break, do, drive, fly, keep, make, rise, see, spend, tell

Exercise 4: spot the mistake

Decide whether each sentence is correct or incorrect, and rewrite the incorrect ones.

Download the list of irregular verbs in English in PDF

If you want to download the complete list of irregular verbs, you can use the download button at the top of the article.

Any questions?

If you have any questions or suggestions, such as including a verb not on the list, leave me a comment and I will reply as soon as possible.

I hope you found this post useful. In that case, don’t forget to share it with your friends and family.

See you in the next post. Until then, don’t forget to keep smiling! 🙂