The past tense and past participle of regular verbs end in -ed:
Infinitive | Past tense | Past participle |
---|---|---|
like | liked | liked |
rain | rained | rained |
walk | walked | walked |
work | worked | worked |
Some verbs, however, are irregular.
Infinitive | Past tense | Past participle |
---|---|---|
be | was/were | been |
eat | ate | eaten |
have | had | had |
know | knew | known |
put | put | put |
When we form the present perfect, past perfect or the passive, we need the past participle of the verb:
Present perfect: "I haven't had breakfast yet."
Past perfect: "She had known him for only two weeks."
Passive: "Then I discovered that the laptop had been stolen."
With some irregular verbs, all three forms are the same: for example, put and hit.
Sometimes the past tense and the past participle are the same, but different from the infinitive, such as have — had.
And sometimes all three forms are different: know — knew — known.
These verbs can be regular or irregular, particularly in British English:
burn — burned or burnt
dream — dreamed or dreamt
lean — leaned or leant (UK)
learn — learned or learnt (UK)
smell — smelled or smelt (UK)
spell — spelled or spelt (UK)
spill — spilled or spilt (UK)
spoil — spoiled or spoilt (UK)
It is really best if you learn the irregular verb forms by heart. Click here to download an extensive list of them.