Irregular Verbs In Past Tense: 5 Facts You Should Know

As the name goes by, an irregular verb in English grammar is a verb that does not follow the regular rules of inflection while forming the various tenses.

While the past and the past participle tense of regular verbs are formed by adding ‘-d’, ‘-ed’, or ‘-t’ at the end of the base verb, irregular verbs do not follow this pattern, as their past and past participle are formed by internal changes within the verb.

With interesting facts and examples, we shall now get to know how irregular verbs are used in the past tense.

Forms of irregular verbs used in the past tense

We will explore the various forms of irregular verbs used in the past tense.

The table below depicts the different forms of irregular verbs used in the past tense. We will explore the forms with the help of irregular verbs, “drink”, and “feel”.

Serial Number	Types Of Past Tense	Grammatical Individual and Grammatical Number	Irregular Verb Form Used
1	Simple Past Tense	a. First person singular/ plural number b. Second person singular / plural number c. Third person singular / plural number	a. I drank a lot of water as I felt thirsty. b. You drank a lot of water as you felt thirsty. c. She/ He/ They drank a lot of water as she /he/ they felt thirsty.
2	Past Continuous Tense	a. First person singular/ plural number b. Second person singular / plural number c. Third person singular number d. Third person plural number	a. I was drinking a lot of water as I was feeling thirsty. b. You were drinking a lot of water as you were feeling thirsty. c. He /She was drinking a lot of water as he/ she was feeling thirsty. d. They were drinking a lot of water as they were feeling thirsty.
3	Past Perfect Tense	a. First person singular/ plural number b. Second person singular / plural number c. Third person singular / plural number	a. I had drunk a lot of water as I had felt thirsty. b. You had drunk a lot of water as you had felt thirsty. c. She/ He / They had drunk a lot of water as she/ he/ they had felt thirsty.
4	Past Perfect Continuous Tense	a. First person singular/ plural number b. Second person singular / plural number c. Third person singular / plural number	a. I had been drinking a lot of water as I had been feeling thirsty. b. You had been drinking a lot of water as you had been feeling thirsty. c. She/ He / They had been drinking a lot of water as she/ he/ they had been feeling thirsty.

Forms of irregular verbs used in the past tense

How irregular verbs are used in past tense

Irregular verbs are not conventional verbs as they do not follow the general rules while forming various tenses. Let us see how such irregular verbs are used in past tense.

Irregular verbs, when used in the past tense, differ from the usual addition of suffixes such as ‘-ed’, ‘-d’, or ‘-t’ to their base forms. Such verbs usually have irregular past participles as well, which is different from the past tense form of the verb.

**Example: Raghu wrote her a letter last week.**

In the above sentence, the verb ‘write’ is an irregular verb since the past tense of the verb ‘write’ is not ‘writed’ but is ‘wrote’.

When irregular verbs are used in past tense

The irregular verbs are utilized in past tense to denote an action that has already taken place. Here we shall see when such irregular verbs are used in past tense.

The table below shows the places and situations where (when) irregular verbs are used in past tense.

Serial Number	When Irregular Verbs Are Used in Past Tense	Examples	Explanation
1	When we have to denote or refer to an activity or action completed in the past.	Vidhya fell down while riding the bicycle.	Here, ‘fell’, the simple past tense of the irregular verb ‘fall’ is used to show the action that is already over.
2	When we have to refer to an activity or action that was happening at some time in the past.	Vidhya was falling down while riding the bicycle.	Here, ‘was falling’, the past continuous tense of the irregular verb ‘fall’ is used to refer to action that was going on in the past.
3	When we have to refer to an activity that happened prior to a particular time in the past.	When I reached home, Vidhya had fallen down while riding the bicycle.	Here, ‘had fallen’, the past perfect tense of the irregular verb ‘fall’ is used to refer to an action that happened prior to the time ‘I’ reached home.
4	When we have to refer to an action or activity that started before a certain time in the past and was still happening till that time.	Vidhya had been falling down while riding the bicycle for the past two days.	Here, ‘had been falling’, the past perfect continuous tense of the irregular verb ‘fall’ is used to refer to an action that started two days ago and was happening till that day.

When irregular verbs are used in past tense

Formula and structure of irregular verbs used in past tense

Let us here discuss the various formulas and structures in which irregular verbs are used in past tense.

The table below displays the structure and formula of irregular verbs, which are utilized in forming the various types of past tenses, such as simple past, past continuous, past perfect, and past perfect continuous.

Serial Number	Types Of Past Tense	Formula And Structure Of Irregular Verbs	Examples
1	Past Simple Tense	Subject + past form of the irregular verb + object + remaining part of the sentence	We ate pizza yesterday evening.
2	Past Continuous Tense	Subject + was / were + base form of the irregular verb + ing + object + remaining part of the sentence	We were eating pizza yesterday evening.
3	Past Perfect Tense	Subject + had + past participle form of the irregular verb + object + remaining part of the sentence	When my mother came home yesterday evening, we had eaten pizza.
4	Past Perfect Continuous Tense	Subject + had been + present form of the irregular verb + ing + object + remaining part of the sentence	We had been eating pizza for the last three days.

Formula and structure of irregular verbs used in past tense

Examples of irregular verbs used in past tense

The irregular verbs in past tense can be used to frame sentences in the simple past, past continuous, past perfect, or past perfect continuous tense.

Now let us go through the following table, which consists of example sentences, to see how irregular verbs are used in past tense.

Serial Number	Examples	Explanations
1	My father bought a new laptop for me last month.	“Bought” is the simple past tense of the irregular verb “buy” and is used to denote an action that is already over last month.
2	Varsha had left my house when the heavy downpour started.	“Had left” is the past perfect tense of the irregular verb “leave” and is used to denote an action (action of leaving) that was over when the rain started.
3	The children found their toys under the table.	“Found” is the simple past tense of the irregular verb “find” and is utilized to refer to an activity that has already been completed.
4	They had been building the house for five months.	“Had been building” is the past perfect continuous tense of the irregular verb “build” and is used to indicate the activity of building that has been happening for the past five months.
5	Liza made a beautiful scarf for me.	“Made” is the simple past tense of the irregular verb “make” and is used to indicate an action which is finished or completed.

Examples of irregular verbs used in past tense

Conclusion

This article thus gives us a detailed overview of irregular verbs in the past tense with the aid of various irregular verb examples and related explanations.