The truly irregular verbs | The parts of speech | Grammar | Khan Academy

Hello Garans, welcome to the last and strangest part of the irregular verb: the truly irregular. Yes, friends, here I have compiled all the weirdest, all the wooliest, all the eeriest and spookiest forms of verbs that don't otherwise fall into other categories.

So we can't say that they end with a changed "ed," we can't say that they end with an "en," and we can't say that there's a vowel shift. We've already covered those; this is the time for the weird stuff. First up: "ught." Oh, what a strange collection of letters that is to be found in English!

So we take a word like "teach," and in the past tense, it's "taught." Likewise, "catch" becomes "caught," and "bring" becomes "brought." Yes, that's really strange! There are only a couple of words that behave that way.

It's also pretty weird and pretty rare for there to be a vowel shift from the present to the past, and also a "du" sound. So, for example, we take the word "flee," which means to run away, and in the past, it's "fled." Likewise, in the present, we say "say," and in the past, we say "said."

So that "a" becomes "e," and that "e" becomes "e," and it's this weird vowel shift that's also followed up by a "du" sound. There are some words for whom time does not exist. These are verbs for whom the present tense is the same as the past tense. Prepare to have your mind blown!

The past tense of "bet" is "bet," the past tense of "set" is "set," the past tense of "hurt" is "hurt." Yeah, it's weird! Finally, there are some helper verbs or auxiliary verbs called modals that are super weird and have these properties that aren't repeated anywhere else in English.

So present tense "can" becomes past tense "could." I can stand on my head, or I could stand on my head when I was five. "May" becomes "might" in the past, "shall" becomes "should," and "will" becomes "would."

And what's super weird about these "L's" in "could," "should," or "would" is—listen to me saying them—you don't pronounce the "L's." And this is the only place in English where that silent "L" shows up. It's so strange! Ah, I love it!

These are the irregular verbs, and these, in fact, are the most irregular of the irregular. If you can master these, you will be a grammar champion, and I believe in you because you can learn anything.

David out.