irreguläre

Irregulære is the Danish and Norwegian adjective meaning irregular. In linguistics, the term is used to describe words or inflected forms that do not follow regular patterns in a language's grammar. The concept applies to verbs, nouns, and adjectives, though verbs are most commonly discussed. Irregular verbs do not form their past tense or participle by applying a single rule; English examples include be, go, have. Irregular plural formation occurs in words like foot/feet and mouse/mice. Adjectives may have irregular comparatives, such as good/better/best and bad/worse/worst. Some irregularities arise from historical sound changes (ablaut) or suppletion, where different roots are used for different forms.

Over time, many irregular verbs become regular through analogy, or through language reform; some persist due to frequency and entrenched usage. Irregularity is a core feature of many languages’ morphology and lexicon, and dictionaries and grammars often group irregular forms separately. For learners, irregulars pose a higher cognitive load because they require memorization or exposure rather than application of a single rule. In linguistic analysis, the study of irregulars sheds light on historical development, word formation, and the interaction between rule-based grammar and lexicon.

In a broader sense, irregular forms can appear across different parts of speech and across languages. They illustrate how languages balance systematic rules with exceptions maintained by usage and tradition. The label irregulære thus signals forms that resist straightforward rule-based generation and instead rely on lexical memorization and historical processes.