Why they are irregular!?

Question

Hi every one!I wonder if there is any logical reason behind irregular verbs? Do you know why they are irregular? Is there any history or something like that?Sincerely

Enoon · Accepted Answer

All Indo-European languages have them. We call them irregular, but their formation in Old English followed strict rules (extremely complex ones), and they are the verbs most frequently used, so it could even be said that the verbs in "-ed" are the irregular ones. Spelling and pronunciation and grammar have changed so much since the irregular verbs took their initial forms that they look like a mismatched jumble now. You can read The Origins and Development of the English Language, by Thomas Pyles, and A History of the English Language, by Albert C. Baugh, if you want the details.

Basically, Germanic languages divide the verbs into two groups, weak verbs and strong verbs. The weak verbs formed the past tense, for instance, by adding a dental (d or t) to the end. The strong verbs formed the past by an internal vowel change, and these became our irregular verbs, for the most part. There are verbs that look irregular but technically aren't, like tell/told, teach/taught and even have/had, which were formed because the English tongue rebelled at "telled", "teached" and "haved". More recent additions to the language are treated as weak and get a dental. The weak verbs have always been more numerous than the irregulars.

Why they are irregular!?

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