Level: beginner
Most verbs have a past tense and past participle with –ed:
worked
played
listened
But many of the most frequent verbs are irregular:
Base form | Past tense | Past participle |
---|---|---|
be | was/were | been |
begin | began | begun |
break | broke | broken |
bring | brought | brought |
buy | bought | bought |
build | built | built |
choose | chose | chosen |
come | came | come |
cost | cost | cost |
cut | cut | cut |
do | did | done |
draw | drew | drawn |
drive | drove | driven |
eat | ate | eaten |
feel | felt | felt |
find | found | found |
get | got | got |
give | gave | given |
go | went | gone |
have | had | had |
hear | heard | heard |
hold | held | held |
keep | kept | kept |
know | knew | known |
leave | left | left |
lead | led | led |
let | let | let |
lie | lay | lain |
lose | lost | lost |
make | made | made |
mean | meant | meant |
meet | met | met |
pay | paid | paid |
put | put | put |
run | ran | run |
say | said | said |
see | saw | seen |
sell | sold | sold |
send | sent | sent |
set | set | set |
sit | sat | sat |
speak | spoke | spoken |
spend | spent | spent |
stand | stood | stood |
take | took | taken |
teach | taught | taught |
tell | told | told |
think | thought | thought |
understand | understood | understood |
wear | wore | worn |
win | won | won |
write | wrote | written |
- Irregular verbs
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This is irrelevant question but I need to ask. Would you please tell me what are the references in English language Grammar? Like a list of early books that can be considered as references for grammar.
Thanks in advance.
Hello Roman,
I'm afraid we don't recommend books, but I can make a suggestion. I'd suggest you do an internet search for 'best books to learn English grammar'. Compare the recommendations on two or three pages and then make a list of the top two or three books recommended. Then read the descriptions and, if possible, see what the pages inside look like so that you can choose the one that you think will be most useful for you.
Good luck!
All the best,
Kirk
The LearnEnglish Team
Do we have some rules for changing the base form to past?
Hello themarvelous93,
The rules are explained at the top of this page. For most verbs (which we call 'regular' verbs), we add '-ed' or '-d' to the end of the base form. 'work' becomes 'worked', 'play' becomes 'played', 'escape' becomes 'escaped'.
The past forms for irregular verbs are not regular -- you just have to learn them. Sometimes people study these verbs in groups based on the past simple form -- for example, 'buy', 'bring' and 'think' all have '-ought' in their past simple form: 'bought', 'brought' and 'thought'.
All the best,
Kirk
The LearnEnglish Team
Hi Adreyan,
It's twisted. It's a regular verb :)
Jonathan
The LearnEnglish Team
Hi juliafer,
Gotten is a past participle of the verb get. You could say, for example:
There is another past participle of get – got. Using got is more common in British English and using gotten is more common in American English.
Best wishes,
Jonathan
The LearnEnglish Team
Hi Nagie23,
Happy New Year to you too :)
Yes, it's correct!
There are two things here (Television and radio). So, we might consider the subject to be 'They', which needs the third person plural verb form: Television and radio have ...
But, if the speaker says Television and radio has ... , it shows that the speaker thinks of these things (Television and radio) as two parts of a single thing (e.g. broadcast media), which is an 'it' instead of a 'they'. So, the concept is slightly different.
Another example of this is: Fish and chips is delicious. We could say 'is' instead of 'are' to show that we are talking about the dish as an undivided whole.
Does that make sense?
Jonathan
The LearnEnglish Team
Hi SajadKhan,
We'd like to check your examples but we're not sure which pages they come from. Could you please post the comment on the relevant page and let us know which exercise the examples come from, or else post a link to the page? Then we'll be able to check and correct any errors we find.
Peter
The LearnEnglish Team
Hi SajadKhan,
Thank you for the link. You are correct about both questions and I will edit the task accordingly. It may take a little time for the changes to appear in the task but they will be corrected.
Peter
The LearnEnglish Team
Hi SonuKumar,
I'm afraid I don't understand what you mean by 'you shock or run', so I'm afraid I can't say.
All the best,
Kirk
The LearnEnglish Team
Hi SonuKumar,
Yes, the first is better.
All the best,
Kirk
The LearnEnglish Team
Hi SonuKumar,
'disappear' and 'vanish' are intransitive verbs, so they are not used in passive constructions like the ones in your sentences. You could say 'My car disappeared (or vanished) last night' and that would be fine.
As for your second question, yes, that is correct and well-formed.
All the best,
Kirk
The LearnEnglish Team
Hi SonuKumar,
No, they are not.
All the best,
Kirk
The LearnEnglish Team
Hello harish kumar sharma,
The first sentence is fine but the second is not correct.
Peter
The LearnEnglish Team
Hello harish kumar sharma,
The meaning of the sentence is as follows:
When we have a sentence like this we use an infinitive after the adjective:
Peter
The LearnEnglish Team
Hello hathe,
After 'will' to talk about the future we use the infinitive form. For example:
If we want to talk about something which is true now then we use a present form. For example:
Peter
The LearnEnglish Team
Hello tryon,
The form 'to be' is the infinitive form of the verb. It is used in the same way as other infinitives. Your example from the magazines is an example of what is called an infinitive of purpose. This is an infinitive form used to show the reason for an action. For example, in this sentence the 'to be healthy' part means 'in order to be healthy' or 'so that we can be healthy'.
You can read more about the infinitive form, including the infinitive of purpose, on this page.
Peter
The LearnEnglish Team
Hello html,
'We talk later' by itself is not correct. 'We will talk later' could be correct in context -- see our talking about the future page for a more detailed explanation of the different forms typically used to speak about the future.
'talk to you later' (as a way of saying goodbye) is an abbreviated form of 'I'll talk to you later' (the word 'I'll' has been removed). In this case, 'will' is a kind of promise, I'd say.
All the best,
Kirk
The LearnEnglish Team
Hello MoussA El-GazzaR,
These are two entirely different words without any particular similarity. For the base definitions and uses of these words you can check in a dictionary:
set
sit
If you have particular examples in mind then please post the sentences and we'll be happy to comment on those.
Best wishes,
Peter
The LearnEnglish Team
Hello MoussA,
Did you follow the links that Peter posted? Those definitions are definitely not the same. Just because you can use 'down' after both words doesn't make them mean the same thing. You sit down on a chair but you set down your phone on a table.
All the best,
Kirk
The LearnEnglish Team
Hello Petals,
The meanings here are very close and in most cases I would say that they are interchangeable. Certainly 'by' and 'near' are really the same, I would say.
'Off the main road' suggests that you need to move away from the main road to reach the house. It may be down a minor road or a path, for example.
Best wishes,
Peter
The LearnEnglish Team