For regular verbs, past forms are not shown. So an irregular verb like “swim” will have after it “swam,” indicating the simple past tense, then “swum,” the past participle.

Today, we are discussing the modal verbs that, however, express past actions. Even when such seem to be referring to the future, it will be a future in the past. These include could, would and might.

Today, less than 3% of verbs are irregular but they wield a disproportionate power. The ten most commonly used English verbs – be, have, do, go say, can, will, see, take and get – are all ...