1000 Verb Forms List With V1 V2 V3 V4 V5

English verbs appear in different forms depending on tense, sentence structure, and subject. For example, the verb write can appear as write, wrote, written, writing, or writes. Learning these forms makes it easier to build correct sentences and recognize how verbs change in English.

Below, you’ll find the meaning of V1, V2, V3, V4, and V5, followed by a complete list of 1000 English verb forms. The article also covers regular and irregular patterns, common spelling changes, and special cases such as be, get, and bear.

V1, V2, V3, V4, and V5 Meaning

The labels V1, V2, V3, V4, and V5 are often used in English-learning materials to show the main forms of a verb.

So the verb write appears as:

write → wrote → written → writing → writes

Here, write is the base form, wrote is the past form, and written is the past participle. The -ing form is writing, while writes is the form used with subjects such as he, she, or it in the present simple.

Some grammar books switch the V4 and V5 labels. Because of that, the form names are more reliable than the numbers alone.

How Verb Forms Change

Some verbs follow a simple pattern, while others change more noticeably.

Play is a regular verb because its past and past participle forms both use -ed.

Write and go are irregular verbs. Their V2 and V3 forms change differently:

write → wrote → written

go → went → gone

Seeing the forms side by side makes these differences easier to notice.

Common Verb Forms at a Glance

Before moving to the full list, it helps to see a few common verbs together. Some keep a simple pattern, while others change completely in the past or past participle.

A quick look at this table shows several useful patterns. Have, find, think, and tell use the same form for V2 and V3. Write, eat, speak, and take use different forms for both. A few verbs, such as read, keep the same spelling even though the pronunciation changes.

Regular and Irregular Verb Forms

Regular verbs follow a predictable pattern. Their past form and past participle usually end in -ed, although the spelling may change slightly.

Irregular verbs do not follow one fixed rule. Some change completely, while others keep one or more forms the same.

There is no single shortcut for every irregular verb. The most useful approach is to notice repeated patterns, such as bring → brought → brought or begin → began → begun, and learn them in groups.

Common Spelling Changes in Verb Forms

Verb forms do not always change by simply adding an ending. Some verbs need a small spelling change before -ed, -ing, -s, or -es is added.

Add -es

Verbs ending in sounds such as -s, -sh, -ch, -x, and sometimes -o usually take -es in the third-person singular form.

Change y to i

When a verb ends in a consonant followed by y, the y usually changes to i before -ed or -es.

If a vowel comes before y, the spelling normally stays unchanged.

play → played → plays

enjoy → enjoyed → enjoys

Double the Final Consonant

Some short verbs double the final consonant before -ed or -ing.

The doubling pattern depends on the final sound and stress, so not every verb ending in a consonant follows it.

Drop Final e Before -ing

Many verbs ending in a silent e drop it before adding -ing.

The e usually remains when other endings are added:

write → writes

use → used

Change ie to y Before -ing

Verbs ending in -ie usually change ie to y before -ing.

These spelling patterns explain many of the changes that appear throughout the full verb forms list.

Special Verb Forms and Variants

A few verbs need extra attention because their forms do not fit neatly into the usual pattern.

Be

Be is the most irregular English verb because it has several present and past forms.

Because be has more than one present form, it cannot be represented as neatly as most other verbs in a five-column table.

Get

The past form of get is got. Its past participle varies by dialect.

British English: get → got → got
American English: get → got → gotten

Both patterns are standard in their usual varieties of English.

Bear

The verb bear also has two commonly seen past participles.

bear → bore → borne

Borne is used for meanings such as carrying or enduring.

Born is used when talking about birth.

For example:

She was born in May.

The cost was borne by the company.

Common American and British Spellings

Regular verb forms may also differ slightly between American and British English.

These are spelling differences, not different verb-form systems.

1000 Verb Forms List With V1 V2 V3 V4 V5

The complete list below brings together 1000 English verbs with their five main forms. The verbs are arranged alphabetically and numbered for quick reference.

A

1000 Verb Forms List With V1 V2 V3 V4 V5

The complete list below brings together 1000 English verbs with their five main forms. The verbs are arranged alphabetically and numbered for quick reference.

A

B

The B section includes common regular and irregular verbs, with all five forms shown side by side for quick comparison.

C

The C section contains a wide mix of everyday, academic, and irregular verbs. The table makes it easy to compare their V1 to V5 forms in one place.

D

The D section includes many useful action verbs, along with several irregular forms such as deal, dig, do, draw, drink, and drive.

E

The E section is mostly made up of regular verbs, with many useful academic and everyday words such as educate, encourage, enjoy, establish, examine, explain, and express.

F

The F section includes several common irregular verbs, especially fall, feel, fight, find, flee, fly, forbid, forget, forgive, and freeze.

G

The G section is shorter, but it includes several high-frequency irregular verbs such as get, give, go, and grow alongside common regular verbs.

H

The H section includes several common verbs with irregular past forms, including have, hear, hide, hit, hold, and hurt.

I

The I section contains mostly regular verbs, including many useful academic and formal words such as identify, improve, influence, interpret, investigate, and involve.

J

The J section is short and mostly regular, with useful verbs such as join, judge, jump, and justify.

K

The K section includes a few common irregular verbs, especially keep and know, along with regular forms such as kick, kiss, knock, and knit.

L

The L section combines everyday regular verbs with several important irregular forms, including lay, lead, leave, lend, lie, light, and lose.

M

The M section includes common verbs such as make, mean, meet, move, and multiply, along with many regular forms used in everyday and academic English.

N

The N section is short and mostly regular, with useful verbs such as name, need, negotiate, nod, and notice.

O

The O section contains mostly regular verbs, with one important irregular verb, overcome → overcame → overcome.

P

The P section contains many common regular verbs, while pay, plead, prove, and put show irregular or variable patterns.

Q

The Q section is brief and fully regular, with the common verbs qualify, question, and quote.

R

The R section is one of the longer parts of the list. It includes several important irregular verbs, such as read, rebuild, ride, ring, rise, run, and rid.

S

The S section contains the largest group in the list. It includes many high-frequency irregular verbs, such as say, see, seek, sell, send, set, shake, shoot, show, shut, sing, sit, sleep, speak, spend, spin, split, stand, steal, stick, strike, swim, and swing.

T

The T section mixes many regular verbs with important irregular forms such as take, teach, tear, tell, think, throw, and thrust.

U

The U section is short but includes several useful irregular verbs, especially undergo, understand, undertake, and upset.

V

The V section is brief and mostly regular, with useful verbs such as value, vary, view, visit, voice, and vote.

W

The W section includes several high-frequency irregular verbs, especially wake, wear, win, wind, withdraw, and write.