One debate among 20th-century linguists revolved around the question of whether small children learn all verb forms as separate pieces of vocabulary or whether they deduce forms by the application of rules. The concept of an irregular verb is most likely to be used in psycholinguistics, and in first-language acquisition studies, where the aim is to establish how the human brain processes its native language. Irregular verbs are often the most commonly used verbs in the language. Thus for example a school French textbook may have a section at the back listing the French irregular verbs in tables. The idea of an irregular verb is important in second language acquisition, where the verb paradigms of a foreign language are learned systematically, and exceptions listed and carefully noted. Irregular Verbs Worksheets Terms of Use In contrast to regular verbs, irregular verbs are those verbs that fall outside the standard patterns of conjugation in the languages in which they occur.
