Kids rely on patterns, and even the most irregular languages are full of patterns. English, for example, is notorious for its irregular past tense forms: go / went / have gone, do / did / have done, have / had / have had. There are hundreds of these, and they drive English students crazy. But hidden within the chaos, there are always patterns—little islands of regularity, like steal/stole/stolen, choose/chose/chosen, and speak/spoke/spoken
