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Free spirits
The rebels that follow no pattern. Pure memorisation — sorry. The model to keep in your head is go · went · gone, and 5 of the 175 verbs on this site follow it.
Where this group comes from
Five verbs with nothing to hold on to. Go · went · gone is the extreme case: went is not even from the same verb originally — it was the past of wend, and English borrowed it wholesale after go lost its own past form.
This is not a coincidence of grammar but of frequency. These are among the most heavily used verbs in the language, and constant use is exactly what protects a strange form from being tidied away. Rare verbs regularise; the ones you say a hundred times a day do not.
All 5 verbs in this pattern
| Base form | Past simple | Past participle |
|---|---|---|
| do | did | done |
| go | went | gone |
| bear | bore | borne / born |
| undo | undid | undone |
| abide | abode / abided | abided / abode |
Covered in detail here
These 2 verbs are rare enough that a separate page would mostly repeat the explanation above. What is worth saying about each of them is said here instead.
undo · undid · undone
↩️ To reverse something that was done. Number 151 of 175 by frequency, so one of the rarer ones: three forms that share almost nothing. You will meet it in books and set phrases more than in conversation, and it can wait.
- Past simple: She undid the top button.
- Past participle: What is done cannot be undone.
Mistakes people make with “undo”.
Not “undoed”. Undo does not take -ed — the past simple is undid, however regular it feels to add the ending.
Not “have undid”. After have, has or had the verb switches to its third form: I have undone, never I have undid. This one survives into quite advanced English, so it is worth over-learning.
abide · abode / abided · abided / abode
⛺ To live somewhere (old use); to follow a rule (abide by). Number 167 of 175 by frequency, so one of the rarer ones: three forms that share almost nothing. You will meet it in books and set phrases more than in conversation, and it can wait.
- Past simple: They abode in the mountains long ago.
- Past participle: She has abided by her promise.
Mistakes people make with “abide”.
Not “have abode”. After have, has or had the verb switches to its third form: I have abided, never I have abode. This one survives into quite advanced English, so it is worth over-learning.
British and American English.
Abided for rules — he abided by the terms. Abode is archaic and survives mainly as a noun meaning a home.
Practise all 175 verbs on your phone
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