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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.Table of Contents
- The Past Form Is One of the Past Tenses
- Forming the Past Form
- The Five Verb Forms
- Why the Past Form of a Verb Is Important
- Printable Test

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 |
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. |
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
- hurry > hurried (y changes to an i)
- prefer > preferred (the r doubles)
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) |
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)
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
- third person singular present tense form
- past tense form
- present participle form
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.
- Learning English? Learn the five verb forms.
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