Verbs differ in the manner of forming their past tenses, and participles, or adjectives. Those ending in ed are called regular; those which take any other termination are irregular. There are about two hundred of the latter in our language, which differ in various ways. Some of them have the past tense and the past participle the same; as,
| Bid | Bid | Bid |
| Knit | Knit | Knit |
| Shut | Shut | Shut |
| Let | Let | Let |
| Spread | Spread | Spread, etc. |
Others have the past tense and participle alike, but different from the present; as,
| Lend | Lent | Lent |
| Send | Sent | Sent |
| Bend | Bent | Bent |
| Wend | Went | Went |
| Build | Built or builded | Built |
| Think | Thought | Thought, etc. |
Some have the present and past tense and participle different; as,
| Blow | Blew | Blown |
| Grow | Grew | Grown |
| Begin | Began | Begun |
| See | Saw | Seen |
| Write | Wrote | Written |
| Give | Gave | Given |
| Speak | Spoke | Spoken |
| Rise | Rose | Risen |
| Fall | Fell | Fallen, etc. |
There are a few which are made up of different radicals, which have been wedded together by habit, to avoid the frequent and unpleasant recurrence of the same word; as,
| Am | Was | Been |
| Go (wend) | Went | Gone, etc. |
Some which were formerly irregular, are now generally used with the regular termination, in either the past tense or participle, or both; as,
| Hang | Hung or hanged | Hung or hanged |
| Dare | Dared or durst | Dared |
| Clothe | Clad or clothed | Clad or clothed |
| Work | Worked or wrought | Worked |
| Shine | Shined or shone | Shone or shined |
| Spill | Spilled or spilt | Spilt or spilled, etc. |