What is a Past Participle?

A past participle indicates past or completed action or time. It is often called the 'ed' form as it is formed by adding d or ed, to the base form of regular verbs, however it's also formed various ways with irregular verbs. (List of the most common Irregular Verbs)

Regular Verbs

English regular verbs change their form very little, unlike irregular verbs.

Base Form, Past Simple, Past Participle
finish, finished, finished

stop, stopped, stopped

work, worked, worked

Exercises

Irregular Verbs

Irregular verbs are an important feature of English. We use irregular verbs a lot when speaking, less when writing. Unfortunately, irregular verbs have no "universal rule" for simple past and past participle.

Base Form, Simple Past, Past Participle

Sometimes the verb changes completely

sing, sang, sung

Sometimes there is "half" a change

buy, bought, bought

Sometimes there is no change

cut, cut, cut

Exercises