Most verbs in the English language are regular verbs, which means that the past simple form and the past participle are created by simply adding '-ed' or '-d' or sometimes '-t', to the end of the verb.
description present past past participle Verbs that their base, past simple and past participle forms are different. be was/were been Verbs that their past simple and past participle forms are the same. find found found Verbs that their base and past participle forms are the same. come came come Verbs that their base, past simple and past participle are the same. hurt hurt hurt
A regular verb is any verb whose conjugation follows the typical pattern, or one of the typical patterns, of the language to which it belongs. Verbs whose conjugation follow a different pattern are called irregular verbs.
In English, for example, verbs such as play, enter, and like are regular since they form their inflected parts by adding the typical endings -s, -ing and -ed to give forms such as plays, entering, and liked. On the other hand, verbs such as drink, hit and have are irregular since some of their parts are not made according to the typical pattern: drank and drunk (not "drinked"); hit (as past tense and past participle, not "hitted") and has and had (not "haves" and "haved").
In the context of verbs, we use the term inflection to talk about the process of changing a verb form to show tense, mood, number (i.e. singular or plural), and person (i.e. first person, second person, or third person). This section deals with inflecting verbs to show tenses and participles, and is divided into two main sections:
Regular verbs
Irregular verbs
Regular verbs
Many English verbs are regular, which means that they form their different tenses according to an established pattern. Such verbs work like this:
Verb 3rd person singular present tense 3rd person singular past tense past participle present participle laugh he/she laughs he/she laughed laughed laughing love he/she loves he/she loved loved loving boo he/she boos he/she booed booed booing
Present tense formation
In the present simple tense, the basic form of a regular verb only changes in the 3rd person singular, as follows:
Most verbs just add -s to the basic form (e.g. take/takes, seem/seems, look/looks).
Verbs that end with a vowel other than e add -es (e.g. go/goes, veto/vetoes, do/does).
Verbs that end with -s, -z, -ch, -sh, and -x add -es (e.g. kiss/kisses, fizz/fizzes, punch/punches, wash/washes, mix/mixes).
If the verb ends in a consonant plus -y, change the y to an i before adding -es (e.g. hurry/hurries, clarify/clarifies). But if the verb ends in a vowel plus -y, just add -s (e.g. play/plays, enjoy/enjoys).
Past tense formation
Forming the past simple tense of regular verbs is mostly straightforward, and you use the same form for the first, second, and third persons, singular and plural:
If the basic form of the verb ends in a consonant or a vowel other than e, add the letters -ed to the end (e.g. seem/seemed, laugh/laughed, look/looked).
For verbs that end in -e, add -d (e.g. love/loved, recede/receded, hope/hoped).
If the verb ends in a consonant plus -y, change the y to an i before adding -ed (e.g. hurry/hurried, clarify/clarified). But if the verb ends in a vowel plus -y, just add -ed (e.g. play/played, enjoy/enjoyed).
Forming participles
To form the past participle of regular verbs, follow the same rules as for the past simple tense above.
To make the present participle of regular verbs:
If the basic form of the verb ends in a consonant or a vowel other than e, add the ending -ing (e.g. laugh/laughing, boo/booing).
If the verb ends in e, drop the e before adding -ing (e.g. love/loving, hope/hoping).
If the basic form ends in y just add -ing (e.g. hurry/hurrying, clarify/clarifying).
Irregular verbs
There are many irregular verbs that don’t follow the normal rules. Here are the forms of some of the most common irregular verbs:
Verb 3rd person singular present tense 3rd person singular past tense past participle present participle be is was been being begin begins began begun beginning bite bites bit bitten biting break breaks broke broken breaking buy buys bought bought buying choose chooses chose chosen choosing come comes came come coming dig digs dug dug digging do does did done doing drink drinks drank drunk drinking eat eats ate eaten eating fall falls fell fallen falling feel feels felt felt feeling find finds found found finding get gets got got getting go goes went gone going grow grows grew grown growing have has had had having hide hides hid hidden hiding keep keeps kept kept keeping know knows knew known knowing lay lays laid laid laying lead leads led led leading leave leaves left left leaving lie lies lay lain lying lose loses lost lost losing make makes made made making meet meets met met meeting put puts put put putting read /ri:d/ reads read /red/ read /red/ reading ride rides rode ridden riding ring rings rang rung ringing rise rises rose risen rising run runs ran run running say says said said saying see sees saw seen seeing sell sells sold sold selling set sets set set setting sing sings sang sung singing sit sits sat sat sitting stand stands stood stood standing stick sticks stuck stuck sticking take takes took taken taking teach teaches taught taught teaching think thinks thought thought thinking wake wakes woke woken waking
Note that sometimes the spelling doesn’t change but the pronunciation does (e.g. read). There are many more irregular verbs in English than those listed here. If you aren’t sure how a verb behaves, it’s best to look it up. All irregular verb forms are given in full at the main dictionary entry.