From the UWF Writing Lab’s 101 Grammar Mini-Lesson Series

Mini-Lesson #98

Verb Forms

The principle parts of a verb are its base/infinitive (eat, talk) used for the present tense with auxiliaries like can, should, will, and does.

Its past form (ate, talked) and its past participle form (eaten, talked), used with has, had, or have for perfect tenses with forms of be (is, am, are, was, were, etc.) in passive constructions.

Regular verbs like talk to form their past and past participle forms the “regular” way by simply adding –d or –ed to their base.

Irregular verbs like eat and the ones on the next slide form their past and past participle forms in “irregular” and unpredictable ways.

The past participle form of both “regular” and “irregular” verbs must always be used with an auxiliary/helping verb.

Examples:

Present/ Infinitive

GoDoSee

Writebegin

Past TenseWentDidSaw

Wrotebegan

Past Participle

(have) gone(have) done(have) seen(have)

written(have) begun