In the previous lessons, we saw how a regular verb conjugates into the past tense and past participle by simply adding -ed to the end of the infinitive: ask/asked, talk/talked, watch/watched, etc. Irregular verbs, on the other hand, each follow their own set of rules of conjugation. There are, however, some basic patterns that can help you remember how to conjugate some of these irregular verbs.

Some verbs with "ea" as the central vowels may (or may not) have an added -t at the end in past and past participle forms, but all of the past and past participle forms have in common that the "ea" is changes pronunciation. "I am reading a book" (pronounced "reeding"), but "I have read a book" (pronounced "red").

Many of the challenges that we are trying to tackle

can't be dealt with by individuals [sic] companies alone.

Captions 29-30, The British Monarchy - Global Sustainability
Play Caption

You can finally live the life you always dreamt of.

Caption 10, Movie Trailers - Bruce Willis - Surrogates
Play Caption

I meant what I wrote, shall we meet?

Caption 1, George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four - BBC TV Movie
Play Caption

The father of our nation ordered these words be read to the people.

Caption 84, Barack Obama's Inauguration Day - Obama's Speech
Play Caption

In all of the cases above, the present tense verbs "deal," "dream," "mean," and "read" have the long "ee" sound like "reed", but change in the past and past participles to the short "e" sound like "red."

Further Learning
Go back to the lessons for Irregular Verbs Part 1 and Part 2 and review some of the patterns that can help you learn English irregular verbs. Find examples of the verbs listed above in their past and past participle forms and learn them by searching for examples on Yabla English to see them used in a real-world context.

Topics Grammar Irregular verbs Verbs