Lists of Verbs

A few verbs (marked *) which are seldom or never used in ordinary language are included in this list. These have various irregularities. A few verbs are partly strong and partly weak.

Weak verbs are printed in italics.

Bear, break, drive, get (beget, forget), speak, spin, stink, swear, tear, have an archaic past tense in a: bare, brake, drave, gat, spake, etc.

Beat, beget (forget), bite, break, forsake, hide, ride, shake, speak, weave, write, and some other verbs have archaic forms of the past participle like those of the past tense. The participles in en, however, are now the accepted forms. Chid and trod are common participial forms.

Begin, drink, ring, shrink, sing, sink, spring, swim, often have in poetry a u-form (begun, sung, etc.) in the past tense as well as in the past participle. This form (though good old English) should be avoided in modern speech.

Bend, beseech, bet, build, burst, catch, dwell, rend, split, wet, have archaic or less usual forms in ed: bended, beseeched, betted, etc. Builded is common in the proverbial “He builded better than he knew.” Bursted is common as an adjective: “a bursted bubble.”

Bid, “to command,” has sometimes bid in both the past tense and the past participle; bid, “to offer money,” has these forms regularly.

Blend, leap, lean, have usually blended, leaped, leaned; but blent, leapt, leant are not uncommon.

Clothe has commonly clothed; but clad is common in literary use, and is regular in the adjectives well-clad, ill-clad (for which ordinary speech has substituted well-dressed, badly or poorly dressed).

Dive has dived; but dove (an old form) is common in America.

Plead has past tense and past participle pleaded. Plead (pronounced plĕd) is avoided by careful writers and speakers.

Prove has past tense and past participle proved. The past participle proven should be avoided.

Work has past tense and past participle worked. Wrought in the past tense and the past participle is archaic, but is also modern as an adjective (as in wrought iron).

Some verbs have rare or archaic weak forms alongside of the strong forms; thus digged, shined, past tense and past participle of dig, shine; showed, past participle of show.

Ate and eaten are preferred to eat (pronounced ĕt).

Quoth, “said,” is an old strong past tense. The compound bequeath has bequeathed only.

Miscellaneous archaisms are the past tenses sate for sat, trode for trod, spat for spit; also writ for wrote and written, rid for rode and ridden, strewed and strown for strewn.