bob_duncan  [More info] Hello, A friend of mine who is trying to learn English recently asked me a question which has me bamboozled… He asked "How many IRREGULAR verbs are there in the English Language?" If you look at the site: http://www.englishpage.com/irregularverbs/irregularverbs.html it has well over 200. But then the page "Complete List of English Irregular Verbs by Susan Jones" has a shorter list (http://www.gsu.edu/~wwwesl/egw/jones.htm - the actual list is at: http://www.gsu.edu/~wwwesl/egw/verbs.htm). I'm confused! Where can I find a definitive real COMPLETE list?! Thanks, BD. Pls Cc me any replies at bobduncan@toughguy.net - cheers. bob_duncan Joined on Sat, Aug 28 2004 New Member 01

	+1 Mister Micawber  [More info] Bob, it's more a matter of how many of our irregular verbs are considered to be still in use. Many are obsolete or obsolescent, like 'bedight, bedight, bedight'; others are changing into regular verbs, like 'light, lit/lighted. lit/lighted'. Chaucer and Shakespeare are full of irregular verbs that you cannot even understand without a gloss. So I do not think you will find a 'definitive' list of irregular verbs. A list of about 200 of the most 'common', though, is indeed all anyone will find useful today. Mister Micawber Joined on Wed, Aug 4 2004 Yokohama Veteran Member 36,916 'The question is,' said Humpty Dumpty, 'which is to be master-- that's all.'

	+1 CalifJim  [More info] Mister Micawber has a excellent point concerning irregular verbs which have become obsolete. I did a count myself once, and I left out any verb that is hardly ever used in modern English, such as "smite", and I left out any verb that is a prefixed compound of another with the same pattern, such as "withhold", which has the same pattern as "hold". There is room for disagreement about which verbs are old enough or rare enough to be excluded, so lists will naturally differ. The count I arrived at was 150. Hope that helps. CalifJim Joined on Mon, Aug 2 2004 California Veteran Member 26,178 "There are no facts, only interpretations" - Nietzsche

	+1 Pemmican  [More info] Can you use light as a totally weak verb already? As far as I know, the strong form "lit" is still used and can't be replaced by lighted, except it is used adjectively: "A lighted candle". Pemmican Joined on Thu, Aug 21 2003 Regular Member 569 Wâ mag ich mich nu vinden? wâ mac ich mich nu suochen, wâ? nu bin ich hie und bin ouch dâ und enbin doch weder dâ noch hie. wer wart ouch sus verirret ie? wer wart ie sus...

	+1 Pemmican  [More info] Calif, you did a good job: It is indeed about 150-200 verbs which are regarded to be strong today (not included are those with prefixes). Any list of today's English verbs usually consists of maximal 200 strong ones, about 120-150 of them are still quite important to learn. Ablaut-rows can be a big help here as you'll see that most verbs have many 'partners' that conjugate in the same way, for example: sing-sang-sung goes like swim-swam-swum, stink-stank-stunk, shrink-shrank-shrunk, drink-drank-drunk blow-blew-blown goes like grow-grew-grown, etc. etc. Pemmican