Sling is an irregular verb. Its past tense form (slung) must be memorized as it does not follow standard conjugation rules.
Verbs that follow a similar irregular pattern to sling:
| Base | Past Tense | Pattern |
|---|
Sling is irregular. Its past tense (slung) must be memorized.
Use past time markers: "Yesterday, she slung to the store."
No. Use "did not sling" (not "did not slung").
The verb sling is an irregular verb in English. Unlike regular verbs that simply add -ed, sling changes to slung in the past tense. This irregular form must be memorized as it does not follow the standard conjugation rules.
Irregular verbs like sling/slung 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 slung 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 slung to the store." The past tense form does not change based on the subject — I slung, you slung, he/she slung, we slung, they slung.