Most Common English Verbs

30 Most Common English Verbs

Many students ask which words they should learn first. On strategy is to focus on the most commonly used words. Check out this list of the 30 most common verbs in the English language! The verbs are listed in their base form, present tense, past tense, and perfect forms.

Words that are more common will generally be more useful, so it's a good idea to learn more common verbs first! Get to know these verbs first to make the most of your new vocabulary as you learn English. 

What patterns do you notice in the list of verbs?

There is a general rule in languages (sometimes called Zipf’s Law or The Principle of Least Effort) that predicts that more commonly used words will tend to be shorter. And, as you might expect from that, the first 20 most common verbs are all only one syllable.

You may also notice that 19 of the verbs on the list are irregular verbs.

Note that verbs that work only as auxiliaries and modals (such as can and will) have been removed from this list. Verbs that act as both auxiliaries and main verbs have been left in. Data for this table came from the Corpus of Contemporary American English (COCA).

List of 30 Most Common English Verbs Conjugated

30 Most Common Verbs in English

#	Infinitive	Present	Past	Perfect
1	to be	am, is, are	was, were	been
2	to have	has, have	had	had
3	to do	do, does	did	done
4	to know	know, knows	knew	known
5	to think	think, thinks	thought	thought
6	to go	go, goes	went	gone
7	to get	get, gets	got	gotten
8	to say	say, says	said	said
9	to want	want, wants	wanted	wanted
10	to see	see, sees	saw	seen
11	to mean	mean, means	meant	meant
12	to let	let, lets	let	let
13	to make	make, makes	made	made
14	to come	come, comes	came	come
15	to take	take, takes	took	taken
16	to look	look, looks	looked	looked
17	to thank	thank, thanks	thanked	thanked
18	to tell	tell, tells	told	told
19	to put	put, puts	put	put
20	to like	like, likes	liked	liked
21	to talk	talk, talks	talked	talked
22	to need	need, needs	needed	needed
23	to believe	believe, believes	believed	believed
24	to give	give, gives	gave	given
25	to try	try, tries	tried	tried
26	to call	call, calls	called	called
27	to find	find, finds	found	found
28	to feel	feel, feels	felt	felt
29	to happen	happen, happens	happened	happened
30	to ask	ask, asks	asked	asked

If you like this, check out these other English grammar posts! 

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Collocates with Summer

Collocates with summer

It's summer in Boston! ☀️😎🏖

Let's take a look at some of the words that are most common after summer. Remember, a collocate is a word that is often used with another word.  Focusing on collocation is a very good way to learn common English phrases and expressions. 

Here are some of the most common words after summer that we hope you find useful as you learn English!

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If this was helpful, check out these other English collocates!

Sky Collocates

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