100 Regular And Irregular Verbs | Quick Study List

This guide lists 100 verbs—regular and irregular—with base, past, and participle forms plus examples to sharpen everyday grammar and writing.

English verbs drive every sentence. Pick the right form and your meaning lands. Pick the wrong one and readers stumble. This guide brings a clean, classroom-ready list of one hundred verb forms plus quick rules, pitfalls to avoid, and short examples you can copy as models. You’ll see simple patterns that help you choose the right tense fast, even under exam pressure or during everyday writing at work.

What Are Regular And Irregular Verbs?

Regular verbs build the past tense and past participle with -ed (or -d after a final e): talk → talked → talked. Spelling bends a bit with y endings or double-consonant rules, yet the core pattern stays steady.

Irregular verbs change in less predictable ways: go → went → gone, write → wrote → written, put → put → put. Many of them fall into families with shared vowel shifts, which you’ll learn below.

Both groups appear in daily speech, school tests, résumés, reports, and creative writing. Knowing the core families saves time and reduces mistakes—especially with tricky pairs like lie vs. lay and rise vs. raise.

Regular And Irregular Verb List (100 Words) — Quick Reference

Use this table as a fast lookup. Column three gives the past participle, the form you use with have/has/had. Where dialects differ, the entry favors widely taught classroom forms and clear American usage when forms split.

Base Form	Past	Past Participle
be	was/were	been
become	became	become
begin	began	begun
break	broke	broken
bring	brought	brought
build	built	built
buy	bought	bought
catch	caught	caught
choose	chose	chosen
come	came	come
cost	cost	cost
cut	cut	cut
do	did	done
draw	drew	drawn
drink	drank	drunk
drive	drove	driven
eat	ate	eaten
fall	fell	fallen
feel	felt	felt
find	found	found
fly	flew	flown
forget	forgot	forgotten
get	got	gotten
give	gave	given
go	went	gone
grow	grew	grown
have	had	had
hear	heard	heard
hide	hid	hidden
hold	held	held
keep	kept	kept
know	knew	known
leave	left	left
let	let	let
lose	lost	lost
make	made	made
meet	met	met
pay	paid	paid
put	put	put
read	read	read
ride	rode	ridden
rise	rose	risen
run	ran	run
say	said	said
see	saw	seen
sell	sold	sold
send	sent	sent
set	set	set
take	took	taken
write	wrote	written

How To Spot Patterns Fast

Irregular forms look wild at first glance. Many still sit in neat families. Learn the family and you gain ten verbs at once.

Vowel Shift Families You’ll See Often

i → a → u Family

sing → sang → sung, ring → rang → rung, swim → swam → swum. That three-step melody sticks. Even if a verb from this set isn’t in the table above, the same tune usually plays.

i → a → o Family

begin → began → begun, drink → drank → drunk, shrink → shrank → shrunk. Past and participle end on different vowels; the participle often finishes with -n.

Vowel + N Ending

Plenty finish with -en or -n: write → wrote → written, break → broke → broken, speak → spoke → spoken (another common member not in the first table list). That ending is a strong hint you’re looking at a participle.

-ed Basics For Regular Verbs

Just add -ed: work → worked, play → played.
Drop silent e, add -ed: live → lived, save → saved (keep the e).
Final y after a consonant → ied: copy → copied, reply → replied.
Short vowel + single consonant → double the consonant in stressed one-syllable words: drop → dropped, plan → planned. No doubling when the stress sits earlier: open → opened.

Spelling Rules For -ed And -ing

Small spelling shifts keep pronunciation clear. These rules will save you from common slips in tests and emails.

Silent E

With a final silent e, keep it for -ed (change → changed) and drop it for -ing (change → changing).

Final Y

After a consonant, switch y to i and add -ed: carry → carried. Keep the y after a vowel: play → played.

Consonant Doubling

In short, stressed words with a single vowel followed by a single consonant, double it: stop → stopped, commit → committed. Skip the doubling where stress falls earlier: visit → visited.

American/British Variants

learned/learnt, dreamed/dreamt, burned/burnt both circulate. In North America, the -ed forms are common in school writing. Both sets are understood worldwide.

Common Mix-Ups To Avoid

Lie Vs. Lay

lie (recline): lie → lay → lain. “I lay down at noon” (past). “I have lain here for an hour.”
lay (put down something): lay → laid → laid. “I laid the book on the desk.”

Rise Vs. Raise

rise (go up by itself): rise → rose → risen. “Prices rose last week.”
raise (lift something): raise → raised → raised. “They raised the flag at dawn.”

Sit Vs. Set

sit: sit → sat → sat. “Please sit here.”
set: set → set → set. “Set the cups on the tray.”

Hang: Hung Vs. Hanged

hung fits most everyday uses: “We hung the poster.” hanged appears in historical or legal contexts.

Got Vs. Gotten

Both are correct. In American usage, the participle is often gotten: “She has gotten better at chess.” In British usage, you’ll often see got.

Learned Vs. Learnt

Both forms appear in English classrooms worldwide. Exams accept the form that matches the dialect you’ve been taught; many style guides favor learned in academic writing.

Example Sentences You Can Copy

Short, concrete models help lock forms into memory. Swap the subject or object to fit your task.

Everyday Actions

I made fresh tea and brought it to the desk.
They left early and caught the first bus.
We worked late and finished the slide deck.
She opened the window, then sat near the light.

Work And Study

He wrote the summary and sent it by noon.
The team built a clean prototype and tested it with users.
I decided on the topic and prepared a short outline.
They read the brief and asked two clear questions.

Travel And Time

We went by train and came back by taxi.
She took the early flight and arrived on time.
They drove north and stayed near the lake.
I booked the room and paid online.

Feelings And Senses

He felt calm once the call ended.
She heard a noise and looked outside.
They saw the sign and turned left.
I liked the new layout and preferred the darker font.

When To Use The Participle

The participle pairs with have forms to build perfect tenses:

Present perfect: “She has written three drafts.”
Past perfect: “They had left before we arrived.”
Passive voice with be: “The plan was approved last week.”

It also acts like an adjective: “a broken glass,” “a written rule,” “a closed door.”

Verb Tense In A Nutshell

Match the verb form to time and aspect. Keep your sequence steady inside a paragraph to avoid jolts.

Simple past for finished time: “We met yesterday.”
Present perfect for life experience or time up to now: “I have driven that route many times.”
Past perfect to mark the earlier of two past actions: “She had left when he arrived.”
Progressive with -ing for ongoing action: “They were working at noon.”

Regular Verb Forms (50 Words) — Quick Reference

These keep to the steady -ed pattern. Where spelling shifts apply, the table shows the finished forms you’ll use in writing.

Base Form	Past	Past Participle
accept	accepted	accepted
add	added	added
answer	answered	answered
ask	asked	asked
bake	baked	baked
call	called	called
change	changed	changed
clean	cleaned	cleaned
close	closed	closed
collect	collected	collected
cook	cooked	cooked
copy	copied	copied
correct	corrected	corrected
create	created	created
dance	danced	danced
decide	decided	decided
deliver	delivered	delivered
design	designed	designed
develop	developed	developed
dress	dressed	dressed
drop	dropped	dropped
enjoy	enjoyed	enjoyed
fill	filled	filled
finish	finished	finished
fix	fixed	fixed
help	helped	helped
hope	hoped	hoped
join	joined	joined
jump	jumped	jumped
kick	kicked	kicked
learn	learned	learned
like	liked	liked
listen	listened	listened
live	lived	lived
love	loved	loved
open	opened	opened
order	ordered	ordered
paint	painted	painted
play	played	played
practice	practiced	practiced
press	pressed	pressed
rain	rained	rained
reach	reached	reached
repair	repaired	repaired
return	returned	returned
save	saved	saved
share	shared	shared
start	started	started
talk	talked	talked
travel	traveled	traveled

Mini Practice: Quick Checks

Test yourself with tight prompts. Say the answer out loud, then check the key right after each item.

I have never ______ a live match at that stadium. (see) — seen
They ______ the keys on the table and left. (set) — set
She ______ the file last night and sent it today. (write) — wrote
We ______ the door at six and took the train. (close) — closed
He has ______ two bikes this year. (buy) — bought
The kids ______ outside until dinner. (play) — played

Usage Tips That Prevent Slips

Pair time words with a matching tense. “Yesterday” tends to call for simple past. “Since 2019” invites present perfect.
Keep the voice steady. Switch between simple past and present perfect only when time meaning shifts.
Watch the helper. Have/has/had signals a participle coming; was/were plus -ing signals a progressive form.
Read the sentence out loud. Your ear will often catch a wrong vowel or a missing ending at once.

How We Built This List

The forms were cross-checked against leading learner dictionaries and standard classroom references. Where variants exist, the entry reflects a clear school-friendly choice and mentions the common alternative in the notes above. That way your homework, emails, and exams stay consistent with mainstream usage.

Printable Tips: Quick Review Card

Regular pattern: add -ed. Mind the y → ied switch after a consonant.
Common endings: many irregular participles end in -en (broken, written, driven).
Family beats force: learn vowel-shift families; you’ll remember faster.
Keep a mini list of your personal troublemakers—lie/lay, rise/raise, set/sit—and check them before you hit send.

Keep The Momentum

Build a habit: pick five verbs per day, say the three forms out loud, then write two lines with each. In a week you’ll cycle through the full set with ease. Bookmark this page and use the two tables as your go-to reference while you write.