Regular verb

A regular verb is a verb which can be conjugated in a way typical of the language to which it belongs. All English regular verbs are lexical verbs.

Common regular verbs

Most verbs listed in a good-sized dictionary will be regular verbs. However, the most commonly used English verbs are irregular verbs. English regular verbs are often derived from French, Latin and Ancient Greek, and these tend to have two or more syllables and typically include a verb suffix. By contrast, irregular verbs are usually monosyllabic, and usually Germanic in origin.

The most common regular verb in English is want, which is the tenth most common verb. Other common verbs include look, use, work, call, try, ask, need, seem, help, etc.

Some irregular verbs have some features that are regular. Some irregular verbs have regular preterites, but an irregular past particle, particularly show. Other verbs have both regular and irregular forms, i.e. they are ambiregular verbs. Often these have a regular preterite and a choice of two past participles, e.g. sow+sowed+sown/sowed.

Form

As lexical verbs, regular verbs have both finite and non-finite forms.

• Finite forms:
  • Present tense forms
    • Base form (no inflection), e.g. want.
    • Third person form (in the indicative mood) (conjugated with third person -s ), e.g. wants.
  • Past tense form:
    • Preterite (conjugated with -ed), e.g. wanted.

• Non-finite forms:
  • Infinitives:
    • To-infinitive preceded by the infinitive particle to, e.g. to want.
    • Bare infinitive (with no inflection), e.g. want.
  • Participles
    • Present participle (with -ing), e.g. wanting.
    • Past participle (with -ed), e.g. wanted.

Spelling

There are some minor spelling changes that are common when -ed and -ing. Double letters are common to prevent phantom magic E.

• Verbs ending in -e drop the E; use -> using, used.
• To prevent phantom magic E: stop -> stopping stopped.
• Final Y mutates to I before -ed: carry -> carrying but carried.

Also -ic becomes -ick, e.g. panicking, panicked to prevent a phantom soft C.

And in American spelling, the L isn’t doubled after unstressed syllables; travel, traveled, traveling

Pedagogy

English language learners typically learn the most common verbs before less common verbs. That means they learn the most common irregular verbs before learning how regular verbs work. They often over-regularise irregular verbs; this can generally be understood in context.