Irregular English verbs: -eave to -eft

There are only three English verbs that follow the pattern -eave /iːv/ → -eft /ɛft/, namely (listed as infinitive – past tense – past participle):

leave – left – left

bereave – bereft or bereaved – bereft or bereaved (see below!)

cleave – cleft, cleaved, clove, or clave – cleft, cleaved, or cloven (see below!)

Bereave means “to deprive of; to take away by death or force”. The past tense is usually “bereaved” when referring to the loss of a beloved person, and in this sense it is usually used in the passive as a (nominalized) adjective:

I expressed my condolences to the bereaved.

When used in another meaning, the customary past tense is “bereft”:

He lost all his money and was bereft of hope.

Cleave is a formal word meaning “to split something in two using a sharp tool or weapon” or “to move something quickly through something”. The past-tense form “clave” /kleɪv/ is now considered obsolete, although we can still find it in literature in biblical references. Also note that “clove(n)” is pronounced /ˈkləʊv(n)/ in the UK and /ˈkloʊv(n)/ in the US.

One relatively common expression with “cleave” used in historical contexts is “cleft in twain” (“twain” being an archaic form of “two”), as in:

The sword swooshed through the air and cleft his head in twain.

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Irregular English verbs: -ake to -ook (take, shake, forsake)

A few English verbs follow the pattern -ake → -ook → -aken in the past tense. They are all derived from the verb “take”, apart from “shake”, and “forsake”. Here are the ones derived from “take”:

take – took – taken
mistake – mistook – mistaken
retake (“take control of something again”) – retook – retaken
overtake (“to become greater or more important than”) – overtook – overtaken
undertake (“take responsibility for and start doing”) – undertook – undertaken
partake (“participate”, “take a portion”) – partook – partaken
betake oneself (“go”) – betook – betaken

Note: “betake” is used with a reflexive pronoun, e.g. “he betook himself to his room” = “he went to his room”. The only other two verbs following the same pattern are:

shake – shook – shaken
forsake (“abandon”) – forsook – forsaken

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