Advanced Grammar: Irregular Verbs and Formal Groups

Vocabulary flashcards covering the principal parts, phonological groupings, and morphological patterns of irregular English verbs from Kaltenbacher's Advanced Grammar course materials.

No Change from Base Form (Verb Category)

A formal category of irregular verbs in which the base form, Simple Past, and Past Participle are identical (e.g., beset, broadcast, cast, cut, hit, hurt, let, put, quit, rid, set, shed, shut, split, spread, thrust, undercut, and upset).

Change Only in Simple Past (Verb Category)

A category of irregular verbs where the Past Participle retains the base form while only the Simple Past undergoes an irregular change (e.g., become/became/become, come/came/come, overcome/overcame/overcome, run/ran/run, overrun/overran/overrun, and rerun/reran/rerun).

"-ed/t" Endings for Both Simple Past and Past Participle (Verb Category)

A group of verbs whose Simple Past and Past Participle forms both end in "-(e)d" or "-t", often displaying spelling or vowel changes (e.g., befit/befitted, clothe/clad/clothed, dwell/dwelt/dwelled, heave/heaved/hove, pay/paid, plead/pleaded/pled, and remake/remade).

"-d" to "-t" (Verb Category)

A pattern where verbs form both their Simple Past and Past Participle identically by changing their terminal base letter "-d" into "-t" (e.g., bend/bent, build/built, gird/girt/girded, jerry-build/jerry-built, lend/lent, rend/rent, send/sent, spend/spent, and unbend/unbent).

Vowel Change in All Three Forms [i – æ – ʌ] (Verb Category)

A group of verbs displaying a distinct tripartite vowel alternation across forms from base [i] to Simple Past [æ] to Past Participle [ʌ] (e.g., begin/began/begun, drink/drank/drunk, ring/rang/rung, sing/sang/sung, stink/stank/stunk, and swim/swam/swum).

Same Vowel Change: Short Vowel [i – ʌ] (Verb Category)

A classification where verbs with an [i] base vowel alter to a short vowel [ʌ] in both the Simple Past and the Past Participle (e.g., cling/clung/clung, dig/dug/dug, fling/flung/flung, stick/stuck/stuck, sting/stung/stung, string/strung/strung, swing/swung/swung, and win/won/won).

Vowel Change [i/i:] to [æ/e] (Verb Category)

A category where base vowels [i] or [i:] shorten to [æ] or [e] identically in the Simple Past and Past Participle (e.g., bleed/bled, breed/bred, feed/fed, feel/felt, flee/fled, keep/kept, lead/led, meet/met, read/read, sleep/slept, sweep/swept, and weep/wept).

Vowel Shift to [ɔ:] (Verb Category)

Verbs originating with varying vowels [æ/aɪ/ɪ/i:] that share an identical shift to [ɔ:] in both the Simple Past and Past Participle (e.g., beseech/besought, bring/brought, buy/bought, catch/caught, fight/fought, seek/sought, teach/taught, and think/thought).

"-ed" Simple Past and "-(e)n" Past Participle (Verb Category)

A category of verbs characterized by taking a regular "-ed" ending in the Simple Past while taking an irregular "-(e)n" suffix in the Past Participle (e.g., mow/mowed/mown, prove/proved/proven, saw/sawed/sawn, sew/sewed/sewn, shave/shaved/shaven, shear/sheared/shorn, show/showed/shown, sow/sowed/sown, and swell/swelled/swollen).

Abide

Verb having the Simple Past forms abode or abided, and the Past Participle abided (following the $$aɪ ightarrow \text{irreg} ightarrow \text{

Babysit

Verb listed with the Simple Past form babysat and the Past Participle form babsat.

Beseech

Verb with the Simple Past forms besought or beseeched, and the Past Participle forms besought or beseeched.

Bespeak

Verb with the Simple Past form bespoke and the Past Participle form bespoken.

Bestride

Verb with the Simple Past form bestrode and the Past Participle form bestridden.

Bid Farewell

Verb phrase with the Simple Past forms bid farewell or bade farewell, and the Past Participle form bidden farewell.

Cleave

Verb with the Simple Past forms clove, cleft, or cleaved, and the Past Participle forms cloven, cleft, or cleaved.

Clothe

Verb with the Simple Past forms clad or clothed, and the Past Participle forms clad or clothed.

Dive

Verb belonging to the $$aɪ ightarrow \text{irreg} ightarrow \text{

Forbear

Verb with the Simple Past form forbore and the Past Participle form forborne.

Forgo / Forego

Verb with the Simple Past forms forwent or forewent, and the Past Participle forms forgone or forewent.

Gainsay

Verb with the Simple Past form gainsaid and the Past Participle form gainsaid.

Gird

Verb with the Simple Past forms girt or girded, and the Past Participle forms girt or girded.

Heave

Verb with the Simple Past forms heaved or hove, and the Past Participle forms heaved or hove.

Hew

Verb with the Simple Past form hewed and the Past Participle form hewn.

Jerry-build

Verb with the Simple Past form jerry-built and the Past Participle form jerry-built (classified in the "-d" to "-t" group).

Lie

Verb with the Simple Past form lay and the Past Participle form lain.

Read

Verb pronounced /ri:d/ in the base form, with both the Simple Past and Past Participle written as read and pronounced /rεd/.

Rend

Verb with the Simple Past form rent and the Past Participle form rent.

Reread

Verb pronounced /ˌri:ˈri:d/ in the base form, with both the Simple Past and Past Participle written as reread and pronounced /ˌri:ˈrε:d/.

Shall

Modal auxiliary verb whose Simple Past form is noted as should (obsolete), lacking a past participle.

Shear

Verb with the Simple Past form sheared and the Past Participle forms shorn or sheared.

Sight-read

Verb with both Simple Past and Past Participle forms spelled as sight-read and transcribed phonetically as /'saɪtrεd/.

Slink

Verb with the Simple Past forms slunk or slinked, and the Past Participle forms slunk or slinked.

Smite

Verb with the Simple Past form smote and the Past Participle form smitten.

Strew

Verb with the Simple Past form strewed and the Past Participle forms strewn or strewed.

Swell

Verb with the Simple Past form swelled and the Past Participle form swollen.

Thrive

Verb with the Simple Past forms throve or thrived, and the Past Participle form thrived.

Tread

Verb with the Simple Past form trod and the Past Participle form trodden.

Underlie

Verb with the Simple Past form underlay and the Past Participle form underlain.

Waylay

Verb with the Simple Past form waylaid and the Past Participle form waylaid.

Wind

Verb transcribed phonetically as /waɪnd/, with the Simple Past form wound and the Past Participle form wound.

Wreak

Verb with the Simple Past forms wreaked or wrought, and the Past Participle forms wreaked or wrought.