Strumming Patterns in Songs?

There's no easy answer to that. It just takes time. Beleive it or not many strum patterns will work on the same song. Eventually you'll get an ear for it.

from TABS it is impossible to get the 'feel' of the song.
now if you hear the song and use TABS you are better off.

the best way is to read notation(sheet music).
everything is spelled out.
that said, from TABS you need to get the song and listen.
then go back and make notes on your TAB sheet.

as said above, one pattern can fit many tunes.

my rhythm playing follows closely the lyric.

This is a common question and the answers given usually include "you just get a feel for it", which as a newbie is not much help at all (even though its probably the most accurate answer!).

I am hopeless with this. However, something that helped me was the strumming pattern and sound clips on here:
http://www.grouptherapy.guernsey.net/strumming.html (scroll down).

I just work through these now and again to build up a collection that I can try for different songs and see what fits. He has some pointers too, which helps, like Don't Look Back In Anger.

Another thing I've done is picked a song with a distinctive strum pattern (in my head, not necessarily the right one) and then just let the strum pattern come out naturally. This happened for me with You're Beautiful by James Blunt. Like I say, I may not have the right strumming pattern, but the one I use is a natural thing that my strumming arm just does, as opposed to counting DuDuDDuuD or whatever in my head.

Regards,

Rich.

I'm in the same boat as the others. I just developed a feel for it over time. There are some software solutions that occasionally help, like Guitar Pro and Power Tab. Mostly though, they help for the actual strum timing, not the pattern. There are exceptions.