“irregular” past tenses

If the past tense of irregular verbs like run, give, and win changed, I would expect the new form to be the same as the present tense form. This is because many irregular verbs in English are undergoing a process called regularization, in which the irregular past tense form is replaced by the regular past tense form. For example, the irregular past tense of the verb to catch was caught, but it is now becoming more common to hear the regular past tense form catched. There are a few reasons why regularization is happening. One reason is that it makes the language more regular and easier to learn. Another reason is that it is often the result of analogy. For example, if a speaker hears the irregular past tense form of a verb, they may be more likely to use the regular past tense form of a similar verb. I do hear the new forms of irregular verbs in Modern English, but they are not yet as common as the old forms. For example, I hear people say "I catched the ball" more often than I hear them say "I caught the ball". However, I think it is likely that the new forms will eventually become more common, as regularization continues to happen in English. Here are some other examples of irregular verbs that are undergoing regularization:

• sing > sang > sung
• think > thought > thought
• go > went > gone

In these cases, the old irregular past tense forms are still common, but the new regular past tense forms are becoming more common. It is likely that the new forms will eventually become the standard forms of these verbs.

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