Why are irregular verbs important?

There are around 180 irregular verbs in English . These are vastly outnumbered by the thousands of standard ones. 

The inflection pattern of regular verbs is so instinctive that young children and English language learners often regularize irregulars: I knowed that. 

Though only a tiny fraction of the verbs available, irregulars punch way above their weight. 70% of the verbs in everyday use are irregular.

So how have these tricky customers evolved? And why are they so central to English?

Read more (3 mins free on Medium) 

Adapted from my post for the Oxford University Press English Language Teaching Global Blog