Strong and Weak Verbs

Verbs forming their past tense by adding ‘ed’, ‘d’ or ‘t’ to the present tense (with or without any change in the vowel inside) are known as weak verbs.

Examples are given below:

Address, addressed, addressed
Agree, agreed, agreed
Apply, applied, applied
Beg, begged, begged
Buy, bought, bought
Burn, burnt, burnt
Fell, felled, felled

Verbs forming their past tense by changing a vowel in the present form without the addition of ‘ed’, ‘d’ or ‘t’ to the end are known as strong verbs.

Examples are given below:

Arise, arose, arisen
Bear, bore, born
Beat, beat, beaten
Blow, blew, blown
Bind, bound, bound

Exercise

Fill in the blanks with the correct form of the verb.

1.    The wood cutter ——————— trees since morning.

a)    Has been felling
b)    Has been falling
c)    Felled
d)    Fallen

2.    I do not know where he ——————–

a)    Lives
b)    Lived
c)    Live
d)    Has been living

3.    Look before you ——————-

a)    Leap
b)    Leapt
c)    Have leapt
d)    Leaping

4.    She —————— a sweet song.

a)    Sang
b)    Sung
c)    Has been singing
d)    Had sang
5.    ————————- he studied well, he would have passed the examination.

a)    Have
b)    Has
c)    Had
d)    Has had

6.    I —————– for you at the library.

a)    Wait
b)    Waiting
c)    Waited
d)    Am waited

7.    He —————- not —————— for us.

a)    Do, care
b)    Does, care
c)    Did, cared
d)    Does, cared

8.    You need not ——————— about me.

a)    Worry
b)    Worries
c)    Worried
d)    To worry

9.    I as well as you —————— in the wrong.

a)    Am
b)    Are
c)    Is
d)    Were

10.    I will do as you ——————— me to do.

a)    Advise
b)    Advised
c)    Has advised
d)    Advising

Answers

1.    Has been felling
2.    Lives
3.    Leap
4.    Sang
5.    Had
6.    Waited
7.    Does, care
8.    Worry
9.    Am
10.    Advise