English verbs, except Modal, have three forms. The forms help express thought about Time (PRESENT, PAST or FUTURE) and Aspect (Simple, Progressive, Perfect, or Perfect Progressive).
The first form can make the Present Simple:
I write.
The second form can make the Past Simple:
I wrote.
The third form can make the Perfect:
I have written (Present);
I had written (Past);
I will have written (Future).
Regular verbs take the ending –ED, in the second and third forms. Irregular verbs may take various shapes, and these happen to have vowel patterns.
Outside English-speaking countries, these are mostly American English or British English that people learn. We may compare the two language varieties here.
Some verbs are regular in American English, although they are irregular in British English, and the other way round. In American, some verbs can be both regular and irregular: we include mostly standard shapes, but when a shape prevails in American, we mark it EXT, for extensive.
We mark forms more often to occur in British English as BRE, and those associated with American as AE. Literary American English, as in novels and other books, may use irregular verb forms for versatility and stay with regular forms for everyday usage, but sometimes the irregular form is considered British, not literary American.
Let us remember that the speech sound {L} happens to be an individualist, in American English. Appendix 1 has more.
Most dictionaries list irregular verbs alphabetically, so we do not need to repeat that here. We look to speech sound patterns: they make remembering irregular forms much easier. We may begin with just reading a few verbs at a time.
The phonetic script is generalized: phonetics are used world-wide, so it is a good idea to get some practice with them, but the scripts happen to vary in detail, and this is why we can stay with a general idea that can help manage in particular contexts.
The free PDF here has the story entire.
GRAMMAR WEBLOG BY TERESA EVA PELKA 