Begin is an irregular verb. Its past tense form (began) must be memorized as it does not follow standard conjugation rules.
Verbs that follow a similar irregular pattern to begin:
| Base | Past Tense | Pattern |
|---|---|---|
| sing | sang | vowel change (i-a-u) |
| ring | rang | vowel change (i-a-u) |
| drink | drank | vowel change (i-a-u) |
| swim | swam | vowel change (i-a-u) |
Begin is irregular. Its past tense (began) must be memorized.
Use past time markers: "Yesterday, she began to the store."
No. Use "did not begin" (not "did not began").
The verb begin is an irregular verb in English. Unlike regular verbs that simply add -ed, begin changes to began in the past tense. This irregular form must be memorized as it does not follow the standard conjugation rules.
Irregular verbs like begin/began trace back to Old English strong verbs, where vowel changes (ablaut) indicated tense shifts. Over centuries, most verbs regularized to the -ed pattern, but the most frequently used verbs retained their irregular forms because they were too common to change. This is why go/went, see/saw, and break/broke remain irregular today.
When using began in writing, remember that it functions as a past tense verb and typically appears with time markers like yesterday, last week, or ago. For example: "Yesterday, she began to the store." The past tense form does not change based on the subject — I began, you began, he/she began, we began, they began.