What Is the Past Form of a Verb? (with Examples)

The past form is one of five verb forms in English. It is the form used to show the simple past tense.

There is no simple rule for creating the past form of a verb. It depends on whether the verb is regular or irregular. Regular verbs form their past forms by adding -ed or -d. (There are some spelling rules to consider too.) Irregular verbs form their past forms in a number of ways.

The Past Form of Regular Verbs

Below are some examples of past forms of regular verbs:

Base Form	Past Form	Comment
help	helped	-ed added
dance	danced	-d added
tally	tallied	-ed added but spelling rule applied (change y to i)
allot	allotted	-ed added but spelling rule applied (double the last consonant if the verb ends [consonant-vowel-consonant] and is end stressed)

The Past Form of Irregular Verbs

Below are some examples of past forms of irregular verbs:

Base Form	Past Form	Comment
set	set	past form same as the base form
dig	dug	past form has a vowel change from the base form
seek	sought	past form is completely different from the base from

The Five Verb Forms

The table below shows the five verb forms in English.

Verb Type	The Base Form (also "Simple Form" or "Uninflected Form")	The 3rd Person Singular Present Tense Form (also "The -s Form")	Past Form (also "The Past Tense Form")	The Present Participle Form (also "The -ing Form")	The Past Participle Form
Regular	play	plays	played	playing	played
Regular	use	uses	used	using	used
Regular	marry	marries	married	marrying	married
Irregular	bring	brings	brought	bringing	brought
Irregular	run	runs	ran	running	run
Irregular	fall	falls	fell	falling	fallen
Irregular	drink	drinks	drank	drinking	drunk

Related Pages

What Is the Past Form of a Verb? (with Examples)