Strong Verbs vs. Weak Verbs: What’s the Difference?

Strong Verbs vs. Weak Verbs: What’s the Difference?

Strong verbs definition: Strong verbs are those that change the stem vowel in order to form the past tense or past participle.
Weak verbs definition: Weak verbs are those that add a “-d” or a “-t” ending to the past tense or past participle

####What is a Strong Verb?
What are strong verbs? Strong verbs have a change in the vowel of the original verb when they are used in the past tense or as a past participle—or they don’t change at all.

There is no general rule or formula to create the past tense for these verbs. Using most of these verbs in the past tense requires great familiarity with the language.

This is why many new English speakers (whether children or adults) make mistakes when conjugating strong verbs into the past tense. Some native English speakers will even make mistakes when they are speaking quickly or without thinking.

Example of Strong Verbs:

Verb: to bring
Past tense/participle: brought
Strong and weak verbs The past tense of “to bring” really looks nothing like the original verb. Furthermore, there is a change in stem vowel and stem vowel sound. (“i” to “ou”).

Verb: to swim
Past tense: swam
Past participle: swum
Example: The fan, identified as Suli by Spanish newspaper Mundo Deportivo, swam over half a mile to the Barcelona star’s yacht, where he was spotted by security. –The Washington Post

Strong verbs don’t act in a predictable way. Some of them don’t change at all to form various tenses.

For example, Quit > Quit > Quit.
Strong verbs, which are also called irregular verbs, were given their name because they are “strong enough” to create their own endings. They don’t need the usual endings because they can create their own from their own devices.

####What is a Weak Verb?
Weak verbs do not change the stem vowel of the original verb when they are used in the past tense or as a past participle.

There is a general rule or formula to creating the past tense or past participle for these verbs.

Example of weak verb conjugation:
Verb: to love
Past tense/participle: loved
Verb: to sleep
Past tense/participle: slept
Verb: to work
Past tense/participle: worked
Example: The site has about forty full-time employees, mostly in New York, where the publication is based, and so far they have worked with more than nine hundred athletes, Robertson told me. –The New Yorker
The past tense of “to love” looks much like the original verb. There is no change in stem vowel (Although, sometimes the sound of the stem vowel will change from long vowel to a short vowel as in the example above.).

Strong Verbs List
Here is a list of some verbs in the base form with their past tense/participle conjugation. This list is by no means exhaustive, but it includes many of the most common ones.

Base verb/past tense or participle:
give/gave
sing/sang
bring/brought
choose/chose
drive/drove
bear/bore
wear/wore
shake/shook
fall/fell
sink/sank
swim/swam
ring/rang
stick/stuck
catch/caught
blow/blew
swing/swung
string/strung
sit/sat
come/came
grow/grew

Weak Verbs List
Here is a list of weak verbs in the base form with their past tense/participle conjugation. This list is by no means exhaustive, but it includes many of the most common ones.

Base verb/past tense or participle:

annoy/annoyed
decided/decided
close/closed
clean/cleaned
bounce/bounced
jump/jumped
look/looked
play/played
smile/smiled
hate/hated
move/moved
dream/dreamt
sleep/slept
leap/leapt
meet/met
bleed/bled
keep/kept

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