Verb- this is an independent part of speech that answers the questions what to do?, what to do? (to be, to study, to dream, to go...)

According to the method of formation of past tense forms (V2) and past participles (V3), all verbs of the English language are divided into 2 groups: regular verbs (Regular Verbs) and irregular verbs (Irregular verbs).

The English verb has three forms. Verb forms are designated by Roman numerals I, II, III.

I form(or an infinitive without to), for example: to make (to do) – make – the first, or main form, which answers the question what to do?, what to do? Using the first form of the verb, the Present Simple Tense is formed. When forming Present Simple Tense to the 1st form of the verb in the 3rd person singular(he, she, it – he, she, it) the ending is added –s or -es(he jumpes, she jumpes, it jumpes, he cries, she cries, it cries, he does, she does, it does) . With other pronouns (I, we, you, you, they - I, we, you, you, they) the I form of the verb is used without changes.

II form serves to form the simple past tense (Past Simple Tense). When forming the simple past tense, both regular and irregular verbs are used. Regular verbs form II and III forms by adding a suffix to the stem I form –ed(jump – jumped – jump – jumped) . If the verb is not regular, then its past tense form corresponds to the second column in the table of irregular verbs (be – was/were, do – did, make – made).

III form- Participle II (Participle II) is a special form of the verb that denotes the attribute of an object by action and answers the questions of the adjective (lost, baked, made). For regular verbs, form III coincides with form II: jump (I) – jumped (II) – jumped (III) (jump – jumped – jumped). II and III forms of irregular verbs can be formed in various ways, indicated below.

Regular verbs

Regular verbs form II and III forms by adding a suffix to the stem I form -ed (-d), which is pronounced like:

• [ d] after vowels and voiced consonants: to clean (clean) – cleaned (cleaned); to play (play) - played (played);
• [ t] after the deaf ones: to work (work) – worked (worked), to look (look) – looked (looked);
• after [d] And [t]: to want (want) – wanted (wanted), to mend (repair) – mended (repaired).

When forming II and III forms of verbs, pay attention to the following spelling rules:

• If the I form is a short root syllable and ends with one consonant, then when adding the ending –ed the last vowel of the root is doubled: to stop (stop) – sto pped(stopped).
• -y, preceded by a consonant, the letter y changes to i: to carry (carry) - carried (carried), to study (study) - studied (studied). But if the stem of the verb ends in -y, preceded by a vowel, then simply adds to the base of the verb - ed: to play (play) – played (played), to stay (stay) – remained (remained).
• If the stem of the verb ends in -e, which is not pronounced, then II and III forms of the verb are formed by adding the ending - d: to arrive (arrive) – arrived (arrived).

Irregular verbs

Irregular verbs- these are verbs that have special, fixed forms of the past tense and participles; their forms do not have a clear formation algorithm and are acquired by memorizing: to make (to do) - made (made) - made (made). Most English irregular verbs are native English, derived from verbs that existed in ancient times. English. Most irregular verbs exist as remnants of historical conjugation systems (changing the verb according to persons - I'm going, you're going, he's going...).

Irregular verbs are used to form the past simple (Past Simple), present perfect (Present Simple), past perfect tenses (Past Perfect), in passive voice (Passive voice), when converting direct speech into indirect (Reported speech), in conditional sentences(Conditional sentences).

Table of irregular verbs

How to remember forms of irregular verbs?

The verb is considered the most important part of speech in English. When forming a sentence in English, the verb must be put into one of its forms, and there are many nuances that must be taken into account.

Verb forms

Verb forms in English help to form one or another tense of the language. The use of a verb in one of the existing forms, as well as auxiliary verbs, are one of the most important indicators of tenses.

There are three main forms of verbs in English, as well as two main groups:

Infinitive

Understanding how verbs are formed is essential for anyone learning English. Three verb forms begin with an infinitive. The infinitive is the primary form of the verb. Almost all verbs presented in the dictionary (regardless of whether they are regular or not) are always indicated in the infinitive form with the particle to. This form is the simplest, most often it is used without a particle to in present simple tense sentences, facts, habits, etc. However, in the present simple tense it has certain exceptions. Also, when setting an auxiliary verb, the future indefinite tense can be formed from the infinitive.

For example:

• I live in Paris - I live in Paris (the verb is in the infinitive, present tense).
• I will live in Paris in the next year - I will live in Paris next year (verb in the infinitive, auxiliary verb forms the future tense).

Past Indefinite

This form of the verb is used exclusively to form the past indefinite (simple) tense, but it has its own characteristics. The fact is that all verbs within this form are divided into two groups: regular (Regular) and irregular (Irregular). Therefore, the formation of the past simple differs for each specific group.

The algorithm for forming the second form for regular verbs is quite simple: you need to add the ending - ed, if the last letter is a consonant.

To verbs that end in the vowel -e, you only need to add the letter - d. For example, verb live in the second form it is written as lived.

For verbs that end in the vowel -y, a different rule applies. If the letter -y is preceded by a consonant, -y changes to - i and the ending is added to the word - ed(For example, cry - cried). If there is a vowel before -y, you just need to add the ending - ed(For example, play - played).

Verbs consisting of one word and ending with a consonant also have their own peculiarity. In this case, when adding the ending - ed, the last letter will be doubled ( stop - stopped).

Table of English Verb Forms

If Regular Verbs can be easily formed from the infinitive, then the forms of irregular verbs in English can be seen exclusively in a special table. It is called a table of irregular verbs, and it contains three columns. In the first column the verb is in the form of the infinitive, in the second - in the form of the past indefinite (or Past Simple), and in the third - the past participle.

In order to find out how to spell the required irregular verb in the Past Indefinite form, you need to look at the second column of the table. The table of English verb forms is, as a rule, the only place where you can look at the form of an irregular verb. Usually, only the infinitive is indicated in dictionaries, and there is no rule explaining the formation of the 2nd form. That is why this form must be known by heart, or looked at in the table, in order to avoid mistakes in word formation.

For example:

Past Participle (third form)

The past participle is also included in verb forms in English. It helps to form perfect tense forms of verbs using an auxiliary verb to have, as well as passive verbs in different times thanks to the auxiliary verb to be.

Verbs in this third form are formed depending on whether they are regular or irregular. So, for example, verbs from the correct group will be absolutely identical to verbs of the second group. The ending is simply added to them - ed(except for the exceptions mentioned earlier). But irregular verbs can only be seen in the table (in the third column). These irregular verbs are often completely different from either the infinitive or the past form. Such verbs should also be learned by heart.

For example:

• I have lived in England for 2 years - I have been living in England for 2 years (the correct verb is live in the third form, the auxiliary verb forms the present perfect tense).
• I have gone in England three times - I went to England three times (irregular verb go in the third form, the auxiliary verb forms the present perfect tense)
• I had lived in England for 2 years - I lived in England for 2 years (the correct verb live is in the third form, the auxiliary verb forms the past perfect tense).
• The door was opened- The door was open (the correct verb is open in the third form, the auxiliary verb forms the passive voice).

English: 3 verb forms or 4

IN lately Linguists began to distinguish not 3, but 4 forms of verbs in the English language. The fourth form is considered to be the present participle. It is formed thanks to the ending -ing, which must be added to the infinitive of the verb ( go - going). Some scientists consider this form to be the main one, some do not, but it occupies a very important place in the formation of the English language. This form is used to form sentences in the Continuous.

The formation of the fourth form also has its own nuances. For example, verbs ending in the letter -e lose it and the ending - is added to them. ing (write - writing).

For verbs ending in the letter combination -ie, you must change it to -y and add the ending - ing (die - dying).

The final letter l will always be doubled when forming the fourth form ( travel - travelling).

In a stressed final syllable, a consonant will be doubled if it is preceded by a single vowel ( win - winning).

For example:

• I am doing my exercise right now - I am doing my exercises right now (irregular verb do in the fourth form, the auxiliary verb forms the present continuous tense)

• I am playing the piano at the moment - I’m currently playing the piano (correct verb play in the fourth form, the auxiliary verb forms the present continuous tense).

Learning English is impossible without covering this topic.

Regular and irregular verbs

Use of irregular and regular verbs in English

A verb (Verb) is one of the main parts of speech in the English language, which names an action and a state. In connection with the formation of the Past Simple (simple past tense) and Participle II (participle II), historically it was necessary to create a typology of verbs in which they could be divided into two types, designating verbs that form the past tense with and without the ending -ed . There are many verbs in the English language, most of them are verbs that form the past tense irregularly.

Let's look at the difference between regular and irregular verbs.

Using regular verbs

So, regular verbs are verbs to the stems of which the ending -ed is added to form the past tense and participle of the English language:

walk - walked - walk
pass - passed - to pass
sail - sailed - to swim

A few points should be clarified:

When a word ends in -e, you just need to add the letter d, not -ed:

love - loved - to love
dance - danced - dance

When a word ends with a dull or hissing sound, then -ed is pronounced like [t]:

watch - watched - watch
finish - finished - finish
help - helped - to help

Voiceless and hissing sounds in a monosyllabic word will be doubled:

beg - begged - to ask
crap - crapped - spoil

But when a word ends in a voiced or vowel, then -ed will sound like [d]:

live - lived - live
clean - cleaned - to clean

If a word ends in -y preceded by a consonant, then y will change to i:

copy - copied - copy

When there is a vowel before y, no change occurs:

play - played - play
stay - remained - to stay

If the word ends with the letters t or d, then -ed is pronounced as:

dent - dented - to press

So, using regular verbs does not cause difficulties, since the rules are not complicated and understandable to everyone.

Using irregular verbs

All irregular verbs (Irregular Verbs) do not obey the rule of forming the Past Simple and Participle II using the -ed ending, each of them needs to be memorized. A significant part of the verbs in the English language are irregular, but they are the most common and used. There is a whole list of these verbs, which can be found in any dictionary or educational book. But all these verbs need to be learned by heart. Here are some forms of irregular verbs in English:

shake - shook - shaken
put - put - put
understand - understood - understood

Knowledge of such verbs is mandatory, because they are used very often.

English is a language of exceptions, where when learning something new grammar rule students are faced with a dozen buts in which this rule does not apply. One of these rules is the use of irregular verbs in the past tense. For many English learners, this topic is a nightmare. But you can’t do without them, because these are the realities of English! However, there is good news - modern English is gradually getting rid of irregular verbs, replacing them with regular ones. Why and how - we'll look at it in the article.

Why are English verbs irregular?

Not only foreigners, but also native speakers themselves experience difficulty in using irregular verbs. But nevertheless, for English philologists, the non-standardity of this part of speech is not a drawback, but a reason for pride. They believe that irregular verbs are a cultural monument that perpetuates the history of the English language. The explanation for this fact is the Germanic roots of the origin of irregular verbs, which makes British English a traditional variant of the language. For comparison, Americans are trying hard to get rid of irregular shape, remaking it into the correct one. Therefore, the list of non-standard verbs increases for those who learn both versions of the language. Thus, the incorrect version is ancient, which is reflected in prose and poetry.

How many forms does a verb have in English?

Speaking about verbs in English, it should be noted that they have 3 forms:

• infinitive, aka ;
• I, or Participle I, - this form is used in the simple past tense (Past Simple) and the 2nd and 3rd cases of the conditional mood (Conditional of the 2-d and of the 3-d case);
• Past Participle II, or Participle II, for the simple perfect tense of the past tense (Past Perfect), passive voice (Passive Voice) and conditional of the 3-d case.

The table "Three in English" is presented later in the article.

What are regular and irregular verbs? Education rules

Regular verbs are those in which the past form (Past Simple) and the form Participle II (Participle II) are formed by adding the ending -ed to the initial form. The table "Three verb forms in English. Regular verbs" will help you better understand this rule.

There are some features when forming Participle I and Participle II:

• if the verb ends with the letter -e, then adding -ed does not double it;
• The consonant in monosyllabic verbs is duplicated when added. Example: stop - stopped (stop - stopped);
• if the verb ends in -y with a preceding consonant, then y changes to i before adding -ed.

Verbs that do not obey are called irregular general rule during the formation of temporary forms. In English, these include the Past Simple and Participle II verb forms.

Irregular verbs are formed using:

ablauta, in which the root changes. Example: swim - swam - swum (swim - swam - swam);

the use of suffixes different from those accepted in the grammar of the language. Example: do - did - done (do - did - did);

identical or unchangeable form. Example: cut - cut - cut (cut - cut - cut).

Due to the fact that each irregular verb has its own inflection, they should be learned by heart.

There are a total of 218 irregular verbs in the English language, of which approximately 195 are in active use.

Recent research in the field of language shows that rare verbs are gradually disappearing from the language due to the replacement of the 2nd and 3rd forms with forms of the regular verb, that is, the addition of the ending - ed. This fact is confirmed by the table “Three verb forms in English” - the table presents a number of verbs that have both regular and irregular forms.

Table of irregular verbs

The table "Three Forms of Irregular Verbs in English" includes the most frequently used verbs. The table shows 3 forms and translation.

Irregular verbs came to modern English from Old English, which was spoken by the Angles and Saxons - British tribes.

Irregular verbs evolved from so-called strong verbs, each of which had its own type of conjugation.

Researchers from Harvard found that the majority of verbs used are irregular, and they will remain so because they are used more often than others.

There is also a phenomenon in the history of the English language when a regular verb became irregular. For example, sneak, which has 2 forms - sneaked and snuck.

Not only English learners have problems with verbs, but also native speakers, as even they find themselves in awkward situations when it comes to this difficult part of speech.

One of them is Jennifer Garner, who all her life was sure that sneak was the correct verb.

She was corrected by the host of one of the programs in which the actress took part. With a dictionary in hand, he pointed out to Jennifer her mistake.

Therefore, you should not be upset if you make mistakes when using irregular verbs. The main thing is that they do not become systematic.

Regular verbs

The table "Three forms of regular verbs in English with transcription and translation" is compiled on the basis of the most frequently used verbs.

Examples of using 3 forms of verbs with translation

Above we looked at 3 forms of verbs in English. A table with examples of use and translation will help reinforce the topic.

Here, for each grammatical construction, two examples are given - one with regular and one with irregular verbs.

Exercises

To better memorize irregular verbs, you need not only to learn them by heart and repeat them, but also to perform various exercises.

Exercise 1. Here is the table "Three verb forms in English. Irregular verbs." Fill in one of the three missing forms.

Exercise 2. Here is the table "Three verb forms in English. Regular verbs." Insert forms Participle I and II.

Exercise 3. Using the tables, translate the following sentences into English.

1. I was reading a book.
2. We saw them yesterday.
3. The Smiths lived in London until 2000. They then moved to Manchester.
4. Alice was a university student in 2014.
5. They worked in the same company two years ago.
6. He just finished training.
7. When we were children, my mother often took us to this park.
8. I drove a toy car as a child.

Answers to exercises

Exercise 1.

Exercise 2.

asked, borrowed, closed, decided, explained, helped, started, traveled, used, worked.

Exercise 3.

1. I read a book.
2. We saw them yesterday.
3. The Smiths lived in London till 2000. Then they moved to Manchester.
4. Alice was a student of Univercity in 2014.
5. They worked in the same company two years ago.
6. He has just finished training.
7. When we were children we took for a walk to this park.
8. I drove a toy car in my childhood.

Get into the habit of repeating basic forms periodically English verb. A table with irregular verbs, doing exercises and periodic repetition will help you quickly cope with the difficulties of the English language.

What is the difference between life and live in English?

Here you can find out what the difference is between in English words life and live.

The words life and live are cognates and are associated with “life”. Despite their superficial similarity, they are used differently and refer to different parts of speech. The word life is the noun "life", and live is the verb "to live". Let's look at a few examples:

Is there life on other planets? - Is there life on other planets?
Her life was filled with joy. - Her life was filled with joy.
Have you ever lived in that flat? -Have you ever lived in that apartment?
Tom wants to live on the isolated island. - Tom wants to live on a distant island.

The difference between the words life is especially clearly visible and live, How different parts speech, in the following examples:

The movie stars live a life of luxury. - Movie stars live in luxury.
Living a life of peace and harmony - that’s what he wanted. - Living in peace and harmony is all he wanted.

Unlike the word life, live can sometimes be an adjective meaning “live, real, live, live.” For example:

We watched the live coverage of the Formula 1. - We watched live broadcast Formula 1.
They saw a live rattlesnake in the mountains. - They saw live (real) rattlesnake in the mountains.

Not the least role in the difference between the words life and live plays pronunciation. The verb live is pronounced like , and the noun life is pronounced like .

The word live is found in many English proverbs. For example:

People who live in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones. - Don’t judge people, but pay attention to yourself.
Live not to eat, but eat to live. - Eating a lot is not a great honor.