Past Participles

English past participles usually end in -ed for regular verbs, but many common verbs have irregular forms you need to learn. They are used with auxiliary verbs like have and be.

Regular verbs form their past participle by adding -ed to the base form, and this form is used consistently in perfect tenses and passive voice.

Irregular verbs do not follow a single pattern for their past participle, so you have to learn each form. These verbs are very common and appear frequently in speech and writing.

Past participles are used with have to form perfect tenses, with be to form the passive voice, and sometimes as adjectives to describe a noun. Each use relies on the past participle form.

The perfect tenses use the past participle with have (in its various forms) to show actions that are completed relative to a particular time. This includes the present perfect, past perfect, and future perfect.

The passive voice uses the past participle with a form of be to shift focus from the doer to the receiver of an action. This is common in both speech and writing for emphasizing the result or when the agent is unknown or unimportant.

Past participles can function as adjectives when they describe a noun’s state resulting from an action. They often appear before a noun or after linking verbs and should agree in meaning with the noun they modify.

Past participles are key for perfect tenses, passive constructions, and adjectival meanings. Regular verbs form them with -ed, while irregular verbs must be memorized. Practice using them in each context to gain fluency.