English Irregular Verbs

Most verbs in English are not irregular. Those that are irregular are irregular mainly in the simple past tense, with a few exceptions.

The verb to be does not follow the logic of other verbs.

Take the verb to play as an example.

If we compare the two verbs, we can see that in the indicative mood there is an -s on the third person singular, while the root remains the same.

I play

You play

She plays

We play

They play

One plays

To be is rather different:

I am

You are

He is

We are

They are

One is

You would not know that this is the verb to be from its indicative form.

Its past form is also difficult to discern: I was, you were, he was, they were, one was. Compare that with play: I played, you played, he played, we played, they played. It is easy to wonder why we have irregular verbs at all.

Well, about 80 are used every day — sleep, wake, drive, drink, go, run, dream, burn, buy, think, know, and so on.