Lumiere English Academy - Participles and a List of Principal Parts

Lumiere English academy

A Basic Grammar

Studying English

Dear student,

Teachers will cast verbal darts

Till you know your principal parts

Before any real study of English can commence, students should be aware of the principal parts of the verb, for without these students will betray an ignorance of English at every turn. As the jingle states, however, this is not nearly as formidable a task as we tend to convince ourselves it is while we are studying at school. Relax, seat yourself comfortably and meet the challenge head on. If you find the principal parts tricky to memorise, read them into your tape recorder. Listening to the repetition while you are washing the dishes, changing a tyre or driving a car will soon help you to memorise them. Even after the third or fourth playing of the tape, you will find yourself answering some of them in unison with the recorded words. If you can tape them yourself, all the better, for there is something reassuring about the sound of one's own voice.

THE PRESENT PARTICIPLE

This is the same for regular and irregular verbs. It always ends with -ING, e.g. loving. The only thing to remember about the present participle is that you use the infinitive, but lop off the unsounded E at the end if there is one, before adding the ING. So, in the case of words such as love, leave, derive, deride, you use lov, leav, deriv, derid, before adding ING, i.e. loving, leaving, deriving, deriding. When the word ends on a consonant, e.g. look, you just add plain ING, SO look-ing. To repeat: Never have an E before the ING of a present participle, NOT DERIVE-ING but DERIVING.

THE PAST PARTICIPLE

In the case of regular verbs, the past participle is formed by adding a D to a word ending on an unsounded vowel, e.g. love-D, and by adding ED to a word ending on a consonant, e.g. look-ED.

THE PRINCIPAL PARTS OF REGULAR VERBS

There are three principal parts of verbs given and they should be memorised from the outset, for until you know your principal parts you will not be able to deal correctly with your verb tenses (i.e. times, yesterday, today and tomorrow). The principal parts are given for the present, the past indefinite and the past participle, e.g. I love, I loved, I have loved. The past participle is the same for the past perfect tense, I had loved as for the present perfect tense I have loved. 

The present perfect is easily explained by saying that the verb to have is used in the present tense, while loved is in the past or perfect, whereas the past perfect gives us the past tense of the verb to have followed by the perfect for the verb to love. An inability to understand this basic rule accounts for many mistakes made by second language English speakers. More of this later. First the spadework: the principal parts.

The principal parts of regular verbs are quite predictable. In the case of regular verbs the past indefinite tense is formed exactly as is the past participle explained above, i.e. we add an ED when the verb ends with a consonant, e.g. look-ED, while we simply add a D to the unsounded vowel, e.g. love-D. In the case of regular verbs, the past participle is the same as the past indefinite tense.

EXAMPLES OF SOME REGULAR VERBS

Infinitive        Present         Past Indefinite       Present Perfect

To smile        I smile          I smiled                I have smiled

To laugh        I laugh          I laughed              I have laughed
To frown       I frown          I frowned              I have frowned

PRINCIPAL PARTS OF SOME VERBS ENDING WITH A "Y" OR A "Y" SOUND

This is slightly more complicated but not when you remember that when a word ends on a y, this may be changed to an ie when a d is added, although this is not the case when a word ends on an unsounded y, e.g. obey, convey, in which case it is followed by -ed.

Infinitive       Present         Past Indefinite            Past Participle     
To convey     I convey       I conveyed                  I have conveyed
To cry          I cry             I cried                        I have cried
To deny        I deny           I denied                     I  have denied
To desire      I desire         I desired                    I have desired
To obey        I obey           I obeyed                     I have obeyed
To rely         I rely             I relied                      I have relied
To stay         I stay             I stayed                     I have stayed
To sigh         I sigh             I sighed                     I have sighed
I vie             I vie               I vied                        I  have vied
To shy          I shy              I shied                       I have shied

In the case of irregular verbs, the past participle, while it is often the same as the past tense, sometimes varies. So it has to be learnt and memorised.

EXAMPLES OF PRINCIPAL PARTS OF SOME MORE COMMON 
IRREGULAR VERBS

Infinitive, Present, Past Perfect, Past Participle, Past Perfect Participle

To be              I am              I was                    I have been         I had been
To bear           I bear            I bore                   I have borne       I had borne
To begin,         I begin          I began                 I have begun       I had begun
To bid,            I bid             I bade                   I have bidden      I had bidden
(order)
To bind,          I bind            I bound                I have bound       I had bound
To bite,           I bite             I bit                     I have bitten        I had bitten
To break,        I break          I broke                 I have broken      I had broken
To bring          I bring          I brought              I have brought     I had brought
To buy            I buy             I bought                I have bought      I had bought
To catch          I catch          I caught                I have caught       I had caught
To choose        I choose       I chose                  I have chosen      I had chosen
To cling           I cling          I clung                  I have clung         I had clung
To do              I do              I did                     I have done          I had done
To draw           I draw          I drew                   I have drawn        I had drawn
To drink          I drink          I drank                 I have drunk        I had drunk
To eat             I eat              I ate                      I have eaten        I had eaten
To feel            I feel             I felt                     I have felt            I had felt
To fight           I fight            I fought                I have fought        I had fought
To find            I find            I found                  I have found        I had found
To fly              I fly              I flew                    I have flown         I had flown
To forbid         I forbid         I forbade               I have forbidden  I had forbidden
To forget         I forget          I forgot                 I have forgotten   I had forgotten
To get             I get              I got                      I have got           I had got
To give           I give            I gave                    I have given        I had given

To go              I go              I went                    I have gone          I had gone
To grind          I grind          I ground                I have ground       I had ground
To grow          I grow          I grew                    I have grown        I had grown
To hid             I hide           I hid                       I have hidden      I had hidden
To hold           I hold           I held                     I have held          I had held
To keep           I keep          I kept                     I have kept          I had kept
To know          I know         I knew                    I have known       I had known
To lay             I lay             I laid                      I have laid           I had laid
(bricks)
To lay             The hens lay They laid                They have laid     They had laid
(eggs)
To lead           I lead            I led                      I have led            I had led

To light           I light           I lit                        I have lit             I had lit
To lose            I lose           I lost                      I have lost           I had lost
To make          I make         I made                   I have made         I had made
To mean          I mean         I meant                  I have meant        I had meant
To play            I play           I played                 I have played       I had played
To ride            I ride           I rode                    I have ridden        I had ridden
To ring            I ring           I rang                    I have rung           I had rung
To run             I run            I ran                      I have run           I had run
To see             I see             I saw                     I have seen          I had seen
To seek           I seek           I sought                 I have sought        I had sought
To sell             I sell            I sold                    I have sold            I had sold
To shake          I shake         I shook                 I have shaken        I had shaken
To shrink         I shrink        I shrank                I have shrunk        I had shrunk 

To sing            I sing           I sang                     I have sung          I had sung
To sit              I sit              I sat                       I have sat             I had sat
To sleep          I sleep          I slept                    I have slept          I had slept
To speak         I speak          I spoke                  I have spoken       I had spoken
To spin           I spin            I spun                    I have spun          I had spun
To spring        I spring         I sprang                 I have sprung       I had sprung
To stand          I stand          I stood                   I have stood         I had stood
To string         I string          I strung                 I have strung        I had strung
To strive         I strive          I strove                  I have striven       I had striven
To sweep        I sweep          I swept                  I have swept         I had swept
To swim          I swim           I swam                  I have swum        I had swum
To swing         I swing          I swung                  I have swung       I had swung
To take           I take            I took                    I have taken         I had taken
To teach          I teach          I taught                  I have taught       I had taught
To tear            I tear            I tore                     I have torn          I had torn
To tell             I tell             I told                     I have told           I had told

To think          I think          I thought                I have thought      I had thought
To thrive          I thrive         I throve                 I have thriven       I had thriven
To tread           I tread          I trod                    I have trodden     I had trodden
To understand  I understand  I understood         I have understood I had understood
To wake           I wake          I woke                   I have woken        I had woken
To wear           I wear           I wore                   I have worn           I had worn

To weave         I weave         I wove                   I have woven        I had woven 
To wind           I wind           I wound                 I have wound       I had wound
To wring          I wring         I wrung                  I have wrung        I had wrung
To write           I write          I wrote                   I have written       I had written 

VERBS THAT EITHER DO NOT CHANGE, 
OR HARDLY CHANGE THEIR TENSES 

To beat           I beat           I beat                    I have beaten        I had beaten
To bend          I bend          I bent                    I have bent           I had bent
To bet             I bet            I bet                      I have bet             I had bet
To build          I build         I built                    I have built           I had built
To cut             I cut            I cut                      I have cut             I had cut
To hit              I hit            I hit                       I have hit              I had hit
To hurt            I hurt          I hurt                    I have hurt            I had hurt
To lend            I lend         I lent                     I have lent             I had lent

BUT

To mend        I mend         I mended                I have mended      I had mended

To read          I read           I read                    I have read           I had read

*Pronunciation is as follows; to read (pronounce 'to reed', I read (pronounce as 'I reed'.

 I read past perfect is pronounced as 'I red', I have read is pronounced as 'I have red,'

 and I had read is pronounced as 'I had red.'                   

To rend          I rend          I rent                       I have rent           I had rent

(This is in the case where I rend garments, i.e. I tear material of clothing)

BUT

To rent          I rent           I rented                   I have rented          I had rented

(This is the case where I rent a room or house)

To send         I send           I sent                       I have sent             I had sent
To set            I set            I set                          I have set               I had set
To shed         I shed          I shed                       I have shed             I had shed

To shut          I shut           I shut                       I have shut             I had shut

To spill          I spill           I spilled                   I have spilt             I had spilt

To spread      I spread       I spread                   I have spread          I had spread

ONCE YOU HAVE MEMORISED THE PRINCIPAL PARTS YOU WILL BE READY TO LEARN THE VARIOUS TENSES.

Dr Luky Whittle