Ten most used verbs in English?

Here are the ten most heavily used verbs in the English language:

be
have
do
say
make
go
take
come
see
get

What do they have in common?

All ten are irregular. Unlike the vast majority of verbs, they do not follow a standard inflection pattern: I paint, I painted, he painted etc. To know, for example, is irregular: know becomes knew rather than knowed.

There are around 180 irregular verbs in English and these are vastly outnumbered by the thousands of standard ones. The regular pattern is so instinctive that young children and English language learners often regularize irregulars: I knowed that.

Though 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?