Regular verbs
If a verb is regular, the past simple and past participle end in -
ed. For example:
| infinitive | clean | finish | use | paint | stop | carry |
| past simple | cleaned | finished | used | painted | stopped | carry |
| past participle | cleaned | finished | used | painted | stopped | carry |
For spelling rules, see Appendix 6.
For the past simple (I cleaned / they finished / she carried etc.), see Unit 5.
We use the
past participle to make the perfect tenses and all the passive forms.
Perfect tenses (
have/
has/
had cleaned):
- I have cleaned the windows. (present perfect - see Units 7 - 8)
- They were still working. They hadn't finished. (past perfect - see Unit 15)
Passive (
is clean
ed /
was clean
ed etc.):
- He was carried out of the room. (past simple passive) see Units 42 - 44
- This gate has just been painted. (present perfect passive) see Units 42 - 44
Irregular verbs
When the past simple and past participle do not end in -ed (for example, I saw / I have seen), the verb is irregular.
With some irregular verbs, all three forms (
infinitive,
past simple and
past participle) are the same.
For example,
hit:
- Don't hit me. (infinitive)
- Somebody hit me as I came into the room. (past simple)
- I've never hit anybody in my life. (past participle - present perfect)
- George was hit on the head by a stone. (past participle - passive)
With other irregular verbs, the past simple is the same as the past participle (but different from the infinitive). For example,
tell →
told :
- Can you tell me what to do? (infinitive)
- She told me to come back the next day. (past simple)
- Have you told any body about your new job? (past participle - present perfect)
- I was told to come back the next day. (past participle - passive)
With other irregular verbs, all three forms are different. For example,
wake →
woke/woken:
- I'll wake you up. (infinitive)
- I woke up in the middle of the night. (past simple)
- The baby has woken up. (past participle - present perfect)
- I was woken up by a loud noise. (past participle - passive)
| burn → burned or burnt |
| dream → dreamed or dreamt [dremt]* |
| lean → leaned or leant [lent]* |
| learn → learned or learnt |
| smell → smelled or smelt |
| spell → spelled or spelt |
| spill → spilled or spilt |
| spoil → spoiled or spoilt |
*
pronunciationSo you can say:
- I leant out of the window. or I leaned out of the window.
- The dinner has been spoiled. or The dinner has been spoilt.
In British English the irregular form (burnt/learnt etc.) is more usual. For American English, see Appendix 7.
