A Practical and Authoritative Guide to Contemporary English. 1996.
Page 42
Irregular verbs do not follow the -ed pattern of regular verbs. Most change their base form—and often its vowel—to make the past tense and past participle. Here are some examples of irregular verbs showing how varied they can be:
Base Form
Past
Past Participle
bend
bent
bent
weep
wept
wept
think
thought
thought
speak
spoke
spoken
grow
grew
grown
ride
rode
ridden
tear
tore
torn
meet
met
met
find
found
found
stand
stood
stood
begin
began
begun
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Some irregular verbs, like burst, cast, cut, and split, do not change to form the past tense and past participle (He cut the bread. He has cut the bread). A few verbs, like burn and spell, have both regular (burned, spelled) and irregular (burnt, spelt) past tenses and past participles. Some, like mow and saw, have both regular and irregular past participles (sawed, sawn). Since English has so many irregular verbs, you should check your dictionary for the correct principal parts of particular verbs.
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verbs, tenses of
Verb tenses show time. English has present, past, and future tenses; these have three variations, simple, perfect, and progressive.
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simple tenses
The simple present is formed with a present form of the verb. The simple past uses the past form. The simple future requires the auxiliary will or shall and a bare infinitive.
