The 100 most common English verbs

The 100 verbs English speakers use most in everyday life: the ones you need to communicate with ease. For each verb: its three forms and its audio pronunciation.

Word cloud of the most common English verbs: be, have, do, say, go, get, make

100verbs

47irregular

52regular

1with both forms

Top 100 most used verbs in English


1	be	was / were	been	Irregular
2	have	had	had	Irregular
3	do	did	done	Irregular
4	say	said	said	Irregular
5	go	went	gone	Irregular
6	get	got	gotten / got	Irregular
7	make	made	made	Irregular
8	know	knew	known	Irregular
9	think	thought	thought	Irregular
10	take	took	taken	Irregular
11	see	saw	seen	Irregular
12	come	came	come	Irregular
13	want	wanted	wanted	Regular
14	look	looked	looked	Regular
15	use	used	used	Regular
16	find	found	found	Irregular
17	give	gave	given	Irregular
18	tell	told	told	Irregular
19	work	worked	worked	Regular
20	call	called	called	Regular
21	try	tried	tried	Regular
22	ask	asked	asked	Regular
23	need	needed	needed	Regular
24	feel	felt	felt	Irregular
25	become	became	become	Irregular
26	leave	left	left	Irregular
27	put	put	put	Irregular
28	mean	meant	meant	Irregular
29	keep	kept	kept	Irregular
30	let	let	let	Irregular
31	begin	began	begun	Irregular
32	seem	seemed	seemed	Regular
33	help	helped	helped	Regular
34	talk	talked	talked	Regular
35	turn	turned	turned	Regular
36	start	started	started	Regular
37	show	showed	shown	Irregular
38	hear	heard	heard	Regular
39	play	played	played	Regular
40	run	ran	run	Irregular
41	move	moved	moved	Regular
42	like	liked	liked	Regular
43	live	lived	lived	Regular
44	believe	believed	believed	Regular
45	hold	held	held	Irregular
46	bring	brought	brought	Irregular
47	happen	happened	happened	Regular
48	write	wrote	written	Irregular
49	provide	provided	provided	Regular
50	sit	sat	sat	Irregular
51	stand	stood	stood	Irregular
52	lose	lost	lost	Irregular
53	pay	paid	paid	Irregular
54	meet	met	met	Irregular
55	include	included	included	Regular
56	continue	continued	continued	Regular
57	set	set	set	Irregular
58	learn	learned / learnt	learned / learnt	Both
59	change	changed	changed	Regular
60	lead	led	led	Irregular
61	understand	understood	understood	Irregular
62	watch	watched	watched	Regular
63	follow	followed	followed	Regular
64	stop	stopped	stopped	Regular
65	create	created	created	Regular
66	speak	spoke	spoken	Irregular
67	read	read	read	Irregular
68	allow	allowed	allowed	Regular
69	add	added	added	Regular
70	spend	spent	spent	Irregular
71	grow	grew	grown	Irregular
72	open	opened	opened	Regular
73	walk	walked	walked	Regular
74	win	won	won	Irregular
75	offer	offered	offered	Regular
76	remember	remembered	remembered	Regular
77	love	loved	loved	Regular
78	consider	considered	considered	Regular
79	appear	appeared	appeared	Regular
80	buy	bought	bought	Irregular
81	wait	waited	waited	Regular
82	serve	served	served	Regular
83	die	died	died	Regular
84	send	sent	sent	Irregular
85	expect	expected	expected	Regular
86	build	built	built	Irregular
87	stay	stayed	stayed	Regular
88	fall	fell	fallen	Irregular
89	cut	cut	cut	Irregular
90	reach	reached	reached	Regular
91	kill	killed	killed	Regular
92	remain	remained	remained	Regular
93	suggest	suggested	suggested	Regular
94	raise	raised	raised	Regular
95	pass	passed	passed	Regular
96	sell	sold	sold	Irregular
97	require	required	required	Regular
98	report	reported	reported	Regular
99	decide	decided	decided	Regular
100	pull	pulled	pulled	Regular

Which verbs are used most in English?

This list of the 100 most common English verbs brings together the verbs used most often in speech and in writing. Of these, 47 are irregular verbs, 52 are regular verbs and 1 accept both a regular and an irregular form.

The 10 most common English verbs are all irregular:

to be
to have
to do
to say
to go
to get
to make
to know
to think
to take

Why are the 100 most common English verbs so important?

These verbs are at the heart of everyday communication: getting somewhere, buying something, ordering a taxi, asking for help. Knowing them is the foundation of learning English and an essential step towards being independent in an English-speaking country.

You can also explore the 100 most common English words. And to make real progress fast, nothing beats immersion: English courses in Malta let you use these verbs every day, in class and in daily life.