Irregular verb

In contrast to regular verbs, irregular verbs are those verbs that fall outside the standard patterns of conjugation in the languages in which they occur. The idea of an irregular verb is important in second language acquisition, where the verb paradigms of a foreign language are learned systematically, and exceptions listed and carefully noted. Thus for example a school French textbook may have a section at the back listing the French irregular verbs in tables. Irregular verbs are often the most commonly used verbs in the language.

In linguistic analysis, the concept of an irregular verb is most likely to be used in psycholinguistics, and in first-language acquisition studies, where the aim is to establish how the human brain processes its native language. One debate among 20th-century linguists revolved around the question of whether small children learn all verb forms as separate pieces of vocabulary or whether they deduce forms by the application of rules. Since a child can hear a regular verb for the first time and immediately reuse it correctly in a different tense which he or she has never heard, it is clear that the brain does work with rules, but irregular verbs must be processed differently.

Historical linguists rarely use the category irregular verb. Since most irregularities can be explained historically, these verbs are only irregular when viewed synchronically, not when seen in their historical context.

When languages are being compared informally, one of the few quantitative statistics which are sometimes cited is the number of irregular verbs. These counts are not particularly accurate for a wide variety of reasons, and academic linguists are reluctant to cite them. But it does seem that some languages have a greater tolerance for paradigm irregularity than others.

Irregular in spelling only

For the purposes of psycholinguistics and first language acquisition studies, only irregularities in the spoken form are relevant. In the foreign language classroom, however, the focus can be on the written form, and here irregularities of spelling are equally important.

The English verb "pay" sounds regular: "I pay", "I paid", and "I have paid" are all pronounced as expected. But the spelling is irregular and that cannot be perfectly predicted; for example, "pay" and "lay" turn into "paid" and "laid", but "sway" and "stay" turn into "swayed" and "stayed".

See also

• French conjugation
• List of English irregular verbs
• Spanish irregular verbs
• Words and Rules, a book discussing how the brain processes irregular verbs

External links

• Germanic languages
  • English Irregular Verb Search English Irregular Verb Search
  • Learn English verbs effectively
  • List of irregular English verbs and exercises
  • TheIrregularVerbs All the irregular verbs of the English language. Conjugation, pronunciation, translation and examples
  • Irregular English Verbs online exercises Practice online exercises with the irregular verbs and examples

• Romance languages
  • ForumRomanum.org (very partial) list of Latin irregular verbs
  • The Catalan-language Wikipedia article on irregular verbs includes a list of irregular Catalan verbs.
  • Orbis Latinus notes on irregular Asturian verbs
  • Orbis Latinus list of irregular French verbs
  • Orbis Latinus list of irregular Italian verbs
  • Orbis Latinus list of irregular Occitan / Provençal verbs
  • Orbis Latinus list of irregular Portuguese verbs
  • Orbis Latinus very partial list of irregular Spanish verbs
  • Orbis Latinus list of irregular Venetan verbs
  • Italian: list of principal irregular second and third conjugation verbs
  • French: list of irregular verbs with their conjugation tables

• Other Indo-European languages
  • PDF on irregular verbs in the Greek New Testament