The Strong Verbs of Modern English: from their origin to a new teaching proposal based on phonology

"Irregular" verbs are a fundamental topic which students need to deal with when learning the English language, but they are still deemed as anomalies or exceptions to the standardized rules of the language; the thesis focuses on the origin of the so-called strong verbs, from Proto-Indo-European to Old English, their development in Middle English and Modern English and the traditional classifications which have been created according to the vowel alternation pattern displayed. Moreover, the discourse delves into the new linguistic and phonological theories which have been studied in order to investigate these verbs further. Finally, a new and original classification based on the different phonological patterns of the Modern English "irregular" verbs is going to be given as a theoretical teaching proposal in order to aid teachers and students with this challenging topic.