english verbs irregular in third person singular present tense

Some speakers have only two forms, collapsing the distinction between V2 and V3, though this is considered non-standard.

This naming convention has all but disappeared from American and British usage, but still can be found in textbooks and teaching materials used in other countries. The infinitive, simple past and past participle are sometimes referred to as First (V1), Second (V2) and Third (V3) form of a verb, respectively. Note that some irregular verbs have identical past tense and past participle forms (as the regular verbs do), as with send–sent–sent. For example, the verb write has the principal parts write (base form), wrote (past), and written (past participle) the remaining inflected forms ( writes, writing) are derived regularly from the base form.

Most irregular verbs have three principal parts, since the simple past and past participle are unpredictable.

The base form is also called the bare infinitive that is, the infinitive without the to. For example, from the base form exist, all the inflected forms of the verb ( exist, exists, existed, existing) can be predictably derived. This is the base form or dictionary form. Inflected forms Conjugation of have PersonĪ regular English verb has only one principal part, from which all the forms of the verb can be derived. For certain other specific topics, see the articles listed in the adjacent box. The copula verb be has a larger number of different inflected forms, and is highly irregular.įor details of the uses of particular verb tenses and other forms, see the article Uses of English verb forms. Most verbs inflect in a simple regular fashion, although there are about 200 irregular verbs the irregularity in nearly all cases concerns the past tense and past participle forms. Generally, the only inflected forms of an English verb are a third person singular present tense form ending in -s, a past tense (also called preterite), a past participle (which may be the same as the past tense), and a form ending in -ing that serves as a present participle and gerund. Most combinations of tense, aspect, mood and voice are expressed periphrastically, using constructions with auxiliary verbs.

Like other types of words in the language, English verbs are not heavily inflected. Verbs constitute one of the main parts of speech (word classes) in the English language.

English verbs irregular in third person singular present tense