Dictionary of English Irregular Verbs
Raymond Long
Published by Raymond Long at Smashwords
Copyright 2011 Raymond Long
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INTRODUCTION
When I was writing Elements of English: Verb Forms, Regular and Irregular, it grew clear to me that I needed to write two books. One would be mainly for learners of English and would aim to teach the rules and patterns behind how English verbs are formed. Verb Forms was that book.
The second book would be a reference work, rather than a teaching book. It would be more for authors writing in English than for learners. Verbs would be listed in alphabetic order for ease of reference. This is that second book.
Verb Forms explains a lot which learners need to know: which verbs take -es rather than -s (as misses, washes), when -ed is pronounced as a syllable in its own right (as loaded, wanted) and why we double the stem-final consonant in commit > committed but not in rivet > riveted. This book does not teach these principles.
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THE CONCEPT OF CORRECTNESS
Who can say which forms of words are the "correct" use of language? Spain has its Royal Academy which defines the norms of correct language. English doesn't have such a defining authority, and if it did there would be different authorities in different countries. In light of this, the only way I can decide on what to list as being correct English is to use my own judgement.
Do I need to list certain forms as being correct? Can I not simply list all of the forms in use? That would be description of a language as it is used. I did that in Verb Forms because that book set out to help learners understand any form English which they might encounter in real life.
But this is a reference book. It is intended for authors to look up a verb and find the form they should use. If this book didn't try to define correct forms, it would fail in its basic purpose.
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MULTIPLE LISTINGS
For some verbs, this book lists multiple forms. In a few cases, I regard these as different and equally correct, such as clove and cleft for the preterite of CLEAVE.
In far more cases I regard one form as correct, and the other as a vulgar corruption used by the ignorant. I always say burnt, dreamt, leant, spoilt, and I regard burned, dreamed, leaned, spoiled as simply wrong. But as an author and editor I've had to conform to the standards of publishers, who may require the forms I would prefer to reject.
The forms I have chosen to list here as wrong are ones I've found to be in common use, not as colloquialism but as English which purports to be correct. In particular, I've encountered these in fictional prose told in the third person, in supposedly correct English rather than in a colloquial narrator's voice. Many other wrong forms beside these occur in living speech, but my feeling is that people will generally know that they are colloquial.
So, I could have listed far more forms as wrong. You may find forms missing from here which you've heard or read in use, such as swoll or swole for swelled. But this isn't really important. Look up a verb in this dictionary to find its correct form. If the form you know isn't listed, this means that I consider that form to be wrong.
In a few cases the older form is so out of use that I consider the newer form to be more correct now than the older one, and I list the older form as archaic. Or I consider both forms equally correct, and list both as older and newer rather than correct and wrong.
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WHAT'S INCLUDED AND OMITTED
Many verb lists give only three parts of verbs, as ride, rode, ridden. This book lists up to eleven parts, though most verbs don't have all eleven. In particular it distinguishes the perfect active from the passive participle (sunk and sunken), the perfect passive participle from the perfect deponent participle (passed and past) and lists subject-nouns like bearer, escapee, liar and guarantor.
I have included verbs in this book simply because they have a deponent participle, as CONCEAL. But doubtless there are others I've missed out.
This book does not cover pronunciations, for instance that said is pronounced like sed, or that the spelling read is pronounced like reed in the present but like red in the preterite.
This book does not list verbs simply because they differ from perfect regularity through regular spelling changes, such as the doubling of stem-final letters in hop > hopped, or the interchange of the spellings ie and y in fly > flies and tie > tying. These changes are discussed in depth in Verb Forms.
But LAY, PAY, SAY, PANIC are listed because they form laid, paid, said, panicked, panicking. In my opinion the spelling changes ayed > aid and c > ck in these verbs are irregular enough to list.
Many verbs of Latin origin form their subject-noun in -or instead of -er, as actor, instructor, reactor. (The formation of such words from Latin roots is covered in depth in my Elements of English: Palatal Sounds.) This book does not list these because they are too numerous. But it does list captor, guarantor, sailor, vendor because these show a greater irregularity than those mentioned above.
Verbs with irregular subject-nouns formed with -r are listed, as glazier, haulier. But nouns of a similar form without an equivalent verb are not listed, as lawyer. Though the verbs COAL and COURT exist in English, this book does not list them because I don't regard collier and courtier as the subject-nouns of these verbs (these nouns have other meanings).
The verb SPY means "be a spy" and the verb OPEN means "become open" or "cause to become open". But this book does not list verbs like these with spy as a subject-noun or open as a passive adjective. Irregular subject-nouns not formed with -r, as spokesman, are included only where the verb is listed for some other reason. Verbs like CHAIR and CLAIM are not included simply because they have the irregular subject-nouns chairman and claimant.
This book does not list object-nouns like captive "one who has been captured" or payee "one who is paid" or action-nouns like accomplishment, beating, choice, cleavage, forgiveness, guarantee.
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THE DICTIONARY
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SUMMARY OF PARTS LISTED
A transitive verb can have a direct object. For transitive verbs, this book typically lists nine parts of the verb. For a completely regular transitive verb like FARM they are:
#1. Imperative: farm.
#2. Infinitive: to farm.
#3. Non-3S "present": I farm.
#4. 3S "present": it farms.
#5. Preterite and subjunctive: I farmed.
#6. Perfect active: I've farmed.
#7. Passive participle: farmed land.
#8. Active participle and gerund: farming.
#9. Subject-noun or instrument-noun in -r: farmer.
An intransitive verb cannot have a direct object. These verbs typically have no passive use, so they lack #7. But many intransitive verbs have a deponent participle #10, with the form expected for #7 but active rather than passive in meaning.
Many verbs lack parts #10 and #11:
#10. Perfect deponent participle. These adjectives mean "having done the verb", eg. escaped "having escaped".
#11. Subject-noun or instrument-noun with form other than -r, as hangman, retiree, spokesman.
These eleven parts are described in much more detail in the Explanatory Section at the end of this book. Where a verb lacks a form, this is written as a dash — in the verb's listing.
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COMPOUNDS
Except where otherwise noted, compounds of the verbs listed in this book are formed like the uncompounded verb. So the parts of the verb BROADCAST are formed by adding broad- to the parts of CAST, the parts of OVERFEED are formed by adding over- to the parts of FEED, the parts of UNDERTAKE are formed by adding under- to the parts of TAKE, and so on.
Verbs formed in this way include:
BREED: crossbreed, interbreed.
CAST: broadcast.
COME: overcome.
CUT: undercut.
DRAW: withdraw.
DREAM: daydream.
FALL: befall.
GO: forgo (also forego), undergo.
HOLD: uphold, withhold.
HUNG: overhang.
LAY: mislay.
LET: sublet.
LIE ("tell a lie"): belie.
SAY: gainsay.
SEE: foresee, oversee.
SPEAK: bespeak.
THINK: bethink.
TAKE: overtake, undertake.
WEEP: beweep.
WIND: rewind.
WRITE: overwrite, underwrite.
In general, prefixes like mis- "wrongly", over- "more than appropriate", re- "again", under- "less than appropriate" can be added to most verbs. But the compounds listed above containing these prefixes have other meanings: undergo doesn't mean "go less than appropriate".
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ALPHABETIC LISTING OF VERBS
ABIDE.
Current: #1: abide. #2: to abide. #3: I abide. #4: it abides. #5: I abided. #6: I've abided. #7: —. #8: abiding. #9: [abider]. #10: —. #11: —.
Archaic: #1: abide. #2: to abide. #3: I abide. #4: it abides. #5: I abode. #6: I've abidden. #7: —. #8: abiding. #9: [abider]. #10: —. #11: —.
ACCOMPLISH.
#1: accomplish. #2: to accomplish. #3: I accomplish. #4: it accomplishes. #5: I accomplished. #6: I've accomplished. #7: an accomplished goal. #8: accomplishing. #9: [accomplisher]. #10: an accomplished artist. #11: —.
ALIGHT.
Current: #1: alight. #2: to alight. #3: I alight. #4: it alights. #5: I alighted. #6: I've alighted. #7: —. #8: alighting. #9: [alighter]. #10: a lady just alighted from the carriage. #11: —.
Archaic: #1: alight. #2: to alight. #3: I alight. #4: it alights. #5: I alit. #6: I've alit. #7: —. #8: alighting. #9: [alighter]. #10: a lady just alit from the carriage. #11: —.
APPEAR.
#1: appear. #2: to appear. #3: I appear. #4: it appears. #5: I appeared. #6: I've appeared. #7: —. #8: appearing. #9: —. #10: a newly appeared comet. #11: apparition.
ARRIVE.
#1: arrive. #2: to arrive. #3: I arrive. #4: it arrives. #5: I arrived. #6: I've arrived. #7: —. #8: arriving. #9: [arriver]. #10: a newly arrived traveller. #11: arrival.
ARISE.
#1: arise. #2: to arise. #3: I arise. #4: it arises. #5: I arose. #6: I've arisen. #7: —. #8: arising. #9: [ariser]. #10: the arisen sun. #11: —.