Give Gave Given
Spoken Description
Learn to distinguish between gave, give, and given. Explore past simple and past participle forms with clear explanations, examples, and common mistakes for intermediate English learners.
Lerne die Unterschiede von gave, give und given: Einführung in die Vergangenheit. Erklärungen, Beispielsätze und häufige Fehler für deutsche Lernende, die ihre Vergangenheitsformen verbessern wollen.
-:- / -:-
The verb give shows that someone hands over something to another person. The three key forms are give (present), gave (past), and given (past participle), and they appear in different types of sentences.
Give
Give is the base form used for present tense, commands, and after helpers like will, can, or should. Use give when talking about general actions or when telling someone to do something.
Gave
Gave is the simple past form used to describe an action that happened and finished at a specific time in the past. Use gave for storytelling and for events that are clearly over.
Given
Given is the past participle form used with helpers like have, has, had, was, or were. It appears in perfect tenses and passive voice, and shows that the action is connected to another time or that something was done by someone.
Summary
Use give for present and commands, gave for simple past actions, and given with helpers in perfect and passive forms. Remember that given always works with an auxiliary verb and that gave stands alone as the past tense.
Quick Examples
More Examples
Common Phrases
Related Verbs
Practice Sentences
All content was written by our AI and may contain a few mistakes. We may earn commissions on some links. Last updated: Mon Dec 8, 2025, 6:25 AM