Top 10 Regular Verbs in English

10 Most Popular Regular Verbs

The top 10 regular verbs in English are:

• want, look, use, work, start, try, ask, need, talk, and help.

An Overview of Regular Verbs

Unlike irregular verbs, regular verbs follow a specific pattern when it comes to forming the past tense and past participle forms.

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The Five Forms of the Verbs

Here are the five forms for each of the top 10 regular verbs. Notice that they all follow the standard pattern when forming each of these forms, which the reason they are called regular verbs. (Of course, there are spelling rules to observe, e.g., try > tried.) Read more about regular verbs and their spelling rules.

base form	-s form	past form	-ing form	past-participle form
want	wants	wanted	wanting	wanted
look	looks	looked	looking	looked
use	uses	used	using	use
work	works	worked	working	worked
start	starts	started	starting	started
try	tries	tried	trying	tried
ask	asks	asked	asking	asked
need	needs	needed	needing	needed
talk	talks	talked	talking	talked
help	helps	helped	helping	helped

What are these forms?

• Base form. The base form (also called the infinitive form) is the version of the verb without any endings (endings such as -s, -ing, and -ed). It is typically used after helping verbs (e.g., can look, must start) and to give commands (e.g., look!).
• -s form. The -s form (also called the third-person-singular form) is used in the present tense with he, she, and it (e.g., he looks, she starts) and singular nouns (e.g., the dog looks, the girl starts).
• Past form. The past form is the same as the simple past tense (e.g., Jane wanted, he started).
• -ing form. The -ing form (also called the present-participle form) is a form used as an adjective (e.g., talking robot) or for verb tense (e.g., She was talking).
• Past-participle form. The past-participle form, which has no alternative name, is a form used as an adjective (e.g., used ticket) or for verb tense (e.g., Tony has tried).

The Full Conjugation in All 12 Tenses (Interactive)

Click on a verb to see how it conjugates in the 12 tenses.

want look use work start try ask need talk help

All 4 Past Tenses

Person	Simple Past	Past Progressive Tense	Past Perfect Tense	Past Perfect Progressive Tense
I you he/she/it we you they	past tense past tense past tense past tense past tense past tense The simple past tense is for a completed activity that happened in the past.	was present participle were present participle was present participle were present participle were present participle were present participle The past progressive tense is for an ongoing activity in the past. Often, it is used to set the scene for another action.	had past participle had past participle had past participle had past participle had past participle had past participle The past perfect tense is for emphasizing that an action was completed before another took place.	had been present participle had been present participle had been present participle had been present participle had been present participle had been present participle The past perfect progressive tense is for showing that an ongoing action in the past has ended.

All 4 Present Tenses

Person	Simple Present	Present Progressive Tense	Present Perfect Tense	Present Perfect Progressive Tense
I you he/she/it we you they	base form base form 3rd pers sing present base form base form base form The simple present tense is mostly for a fact or a habit.	am present participle are present participle is present participle are present participle are present participle are present participle The present progressive tense is for an ongoing action in the present.	have past participle have past participle has past participle have past participle have past participle have past participle The present perfect tense is for an action that began in the past. (Often, the action continues into the present.)	have been present participle have been present participle has been present participle have been present participle have been present participle have been present participle The present perfect progressive tense is for a continuous activity that began in the past and continues into the present (or finished very recently).

All 4 Future Tenses

Person	Simple Future	Future Progressive Tense	Future Perfect Tense	Future Perfect Progressive Tense
I you he/she/it we you they	will base form will base form will base form will base form will base form will base form The simple future tense is for an action that will occur in the future.	will be present participle will be present participle will be present participle will be present participle will be present participle will be present participle The future progressive tense is for an ongoing action that will occur in the future.	will have past participle will have past participle will have past participle will have past participle will have past participle will have past participle The future perfect tense is for an action that will have been completed at some point in the future.	will have been present participle will have been present participle will have been present participle will have been present participle will have been present participle will have been present participle The future perfect progressive tense is for an ongoing action that will be completed at some specified time in the future.

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Learn with Hangman!

Hangman is a classic word game. In this version, the hidden word is a regular verb (not necessarily form this list). Choose your first letter to start.

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