Past Participle | Meanings and Different Forms of Past Participles

The English language has three kinds of participles: the present participle, perfect participle, and past participle. Participles either function as adjectives or as parts of verb phrases to create verb tenses.

Past Participle

What Is the Past Participle?

The past participle is the form of a verb used in forming perfect and passive tenses and for showing past actions. It is also sometimes used as an adjective. The past participle usually ends in -ed because it is formed from the past tense of a verb. As the past participle is a form of a verb, it cannot be used on its own.

Past Participles of Regular Verbs

A regular verb is a verb that conforms to the usual rules for forming its past and future tenses. This means that the past tense of the verb will end in -ed and the verb can be used in the future tense by, typically, placing will’ in front of it.

To form the past participle of a regular verb, add -ed to the end, which places the verb in the past tense.

Below is a list of common regular English verbs and the past participle of each:

1. Act- Acted
2. Play- Played
3. Bake- Baked
4. Dress- Dressed
5. Turn- Turned
6. Shop- Shopped
7. Want- Wanted
8. Guess- Guessed
9. End- Ended
10. Pass- Passed
11. Love- Loved
12. Die- Died
13. Hate- Hated
14. Invite- Invited
15. Follow- Followed
16. Fix- Fixed
17. Order- Ordered
18. Join- Joined
19. Manage- Managed
20. Slow- Slowed

Past Participles of Irregular Verbs

An irregular verb is a verb that does not have the same simple past tense ending as a regular verb. The past tense version of an irregular verb is either a slightly different spelling (and pronunciation) of the You do not add -ed to an irregular verb to form the past participle.

Instead, you add the word has’ before an irregular verb and put the verb into the past tense to form the past participle.

Below is a list of common irregular English verbs and the past participle of each:

1. Go- Has Gone
2. Be- Has Been
3. Come- Has Come
4. See- Has Seen
5. Think- Has Thought
6. Take- Has Taken
7. Begin- Has Begun
8. Say- Has Said
9. Make- Has Made
10. Know- Has Known
11. Buy- Has Bought
12. Break- Has Broken
13. Build- Has Built
14. Drink- Has Drunk
15. Eat- Has Eaten
16. Feel- Has Felt
17. Give- Has Given
18. Hide- Has Hidden
19. Hold- Has Held
20. Get- Has Got (British version) or Gotten (the American version, an exception to the rule of adding has’)

Meanings and Forms of Past Participles

The three forms of the past participle are the regular, the irregular, and the adjective.

The regular form of the past participle ends in -ed, demonstrating a past action.

The irregular form of the past participle includes the word has’ and puts the verb into its past tense form, also demonstrating a past action.

To use the past participle as an adjective, you would use the past participle of a regular verb as an adjective in a sentence, which changes the meaning of the past participle to describe something in the past, rather than demonstrate a past action.

Below are three examples of how the past participle can be used as an adjective:

• He is a wanted criminal.
• She is truly loved.
• The hated family finally moved to a different neighborhood.

Past Participle | Infographic

Pin