Main Verbs

Main verbs are also called "lexical verbs".

Main verbs have meaning on their own (unlike helping verbs). There are
thousands of main verbs, and we can classify them in several ways:

Transitive and intransitive verbs

A transitive verb takes a direct object: Somebody killed the President. An
intransitive verb does not have a direct object: He died. Many verbs,
like speak, can be transitive or intransitive. Look at these examples:
transitive:

I saw an elephant.

We are watching TV.

He speaks English.

intransitive:

He has arrived.

John goes to school.

She speaks fast.

Linking verbs
A linking verb does not have much meaning in itself. It "links" the subject
to what is said about the subject. Usually, a linking verb shows equality (=)
or a change to a different state or place (). Linking verbs are always
intransitive (but not all intransitive verbs are linking verbs).

Mary is a teacher. (mary = teacher)

Tara is beautiful. (tara = beautiful)

That sounds interesting. (that = interesting)

The sky became dark. (the sky dark)

The bread has gone bad. (bread bad)

Dynamic and stative verbs

Some verbs describe action. They are called "dynamic", and can be used
with continuous tenses. Other verbs describe state (non-action, a
situation). They are called "stative", and cannot normally be used with
continuous tenses (though some of them can be used with continuous
tenses with a change in meaning).
dynamic verbs (examples):

hit, explode, fight, run, go

stative verbs (examples):

be

like, love, prefer, wish

impress, please, surprise

hear, see, sound

belong to, consist of, contain, include, need

appear, resemble, seem

Regular and irregular verbs

This is more a question of vocabulary than of grammar. The only real
difference between regular and irregular verbs is that they have different
endings for their past tense and past participle forms. For regular verbs,
the past tense ending and past participle ending is always the same: -ed.
For irregular verbs, the past tense ending and the past participle ending is
variable, so it is necessary to learn them by heart.
regular verbs: base, past tense, past participle

look, looked, looked

work, worked, worked

irregular verbs: base, past tense, past participle

buy, bought, bought

cut, cut, cut

do, did, done

Here are lists of regular verbs and irregular verbs.

One way to think of regular and irregular verbs is like this: all verbs are
irregular and the so-called regular verbs are simply one very large group of
irregular verbs.
Often the above divisions can be mixed. For example, one verb could be
irregular, transitive and dynamic; another verb could be regular, transitive
and stative.

2. Regular Verbs
English regular verbs change their form very little (unlike irregular verbs).
The past tense and past participle of regular verbs end in -ed, for example:
work, worked, worked
But you should note the following points:
1. Some verbs can be both regular and irregular, for example:
learn, learned, learned
learn, learnt, learnt
2. Some verbs have one meaning when regular and a different meaning
when irregular, for example the verb to hang:

ba
se

past

regul
ar

ha
ng

hang
ed

irreg
ular

ha
ng

hung

past
partici
ple

meaning

example

hanged

to kill or die, by
dropping with a
rope around the
neck

When will
they hang the
murderer? / They
havehanged him
already. He
washanged at dawn.

hung

to fix something
(for example, a
picture) at the
top so that the
lower part is
free

Where will
you hang the new
picture? / I've hung it
already. I hung it in
the lobby.

3. The present tense of some regular verbs is the same as the past tense of
some irregular verbs, for example the verbs to found and to find:

pres
ent

regul
ar

irreg

found

find

past

past
partici
ple

found
ed

founde
d

found

found

meaning

example

to start or
establish an
organization
such as a school
or business

Did Steve
Jobs foundApple?

to discover

Where did

Reed's School
wasfounded by
Andrew Reed.

pres
ent

past

past
partici
ple

ular

meaning

example

something

you findyour keys?

/ I foundthem in
the car.

3. Irregular Verbs
Irregular verbs are an important feature of English. We use irregular verbs
a lot when speaking, less when writing. Of course, the most famous English
verb of all, the verb "to be", is irregular.
In the following table, we look at the main difference between regular
verbs and irregular verbs:

base
form

With regular verbs, the rule is easy...

finish

past

finish
ed

past
participle

finished

The past simple and past participle always

end in -ed:

stop

stopp
ed

stopped

work

worke
d

worked

Sometimes the verb changes completely:

sing

sang

sung

Sometimes there is "half" a change:

buy

bough
t

bought

Sometimes there is no change:

cut

cut

cut

But with irregular verbs, there is no rule...

One good way to learn irregular verbs is to try sorting them into groups, as
above.
If in doubt, a good dictionary can tell you if a verb is regular or irregular.