Past Form of a Verb

What Is the Past Form of a Verb?

The past form is the form used to show the simple past tense. The past form is one of five verb forms in English. Let's look at all five forms of the verb "to catch":

1	Base Form	catch
2	The -S Form (also called the Third Person Singular Present Tense Form)	catches
3	Past Form	caught
4	The -ING Form (also called the Present Participle Form)	catching
5	The Past Participle Form	caught

This page is about No. 3, the past form.

The Past Form Is One of the Past Tenses

The past form is not the same as the past tense, although many people use the terms interchangeably.

There are four different past tenses:

1	simple past tense	I looked at the sea.
2	past progressive tense	I was looking at the sea.
3	past perfect tense	I had looked at the sea.
4	past perfect progressive	I had been looking at the sea.

The past form is the same as No. 1, the simple past tense. Read more about the past tense.

Forming the Past Form

There is no simple rule for creating the past form (i.e., the simple past tense) of a verb. It depends on whether the verb is regular or irregular.

Past Form of Regular Verbs

Regular verbs form their past forms by adding -ed or -d. For example:

• want > wanted
• dance > danced

There are some spelling rules to consider too. For example:

• hurry > hurried (y changes to an i)
• prefer > preferred (the r doubles)

Here are some more 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)

Read more about the spelling rules for creating the past forms of regular verbs.

Past Form of Irregular Verbs

Irregular verbs form their past forms in a number of ways. Here are some common irregular verbs with tricky past forms:

• catch > caught
• bring > brought
• see > saw
• wear > wore
• fly > flew
• teach > taught
• drink > drank
• read (pronounced REED) > read (pronounced RED)
• lead (pronounced LEED)> led (pronounced LED)

Here are some more 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	1 The Base Form	2 The -S Form	3 Past Form	4 The -ING Form	5 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

Alternative names:

The base form is also called:

• simple form
• uninflected form
• indefinite form

The -S form is also called:

• third person singular present tense form

The past form is also called:

• past tense form

The -ING form is also called:

• present participle form

The past participle form does not have an alternative name.

Why the Past Form of a Verb Is Important

Learning the verb forms (including the past form) is useful when studying English because it allows teachers and students to talk about the components that form the various tenses.

For example, with some verbs, the past form and the past participle form are the same (e.g., I played, I had played). With other verbs, the base form, past form, and past participle form are the same (e.g., set, I set, I had set). With others, they are all different (e.g., drink, I drank, I had drunk).

Knowing the various verb forms is a good starting point for learning all these complicated rules and exceptions.

Key Point