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  Past Participle

Grammar  >>>  Past Participle

  1. Participles are formed from verbs. There are three types of Participles in English language: the Present Participle, the Past Participle and the Perfect Participle.

Tense
Active Voice
Passive Voice
Present Participle
writing
being written
Past Participle
-
written
Perfect Participle
having written
having been written


  2. Spelling rules for the formation of the Past Participle.

 The general rule is: base form of the verb + '-ed':
work - worked                   add - added
wash - washed                    allow - allowed
watch - watched                 consider - considered
paint - painted                     finish - finished
enjoy - enjoyed                   play - played

  Note that there are a few exceptions:

  • when the verb ends in a consonant + '-y' it changes to -i before '-ed':
  • study - studied                   hurry - hurried
    apply - applied                  worry - worried
    try - tried                           marry - married
    cry - cried                          tidy - tidied
    busy - busied                     carry - carried
  • when the verb ends in a vowel '-e' we add '-d' after it:
  • live - lived                           dance - danced
    hope - hoped                      love - loved
    chase - chased                    smoke - smoked
    improve - improved            confuse - confused
    move - moved                     phone - phoned
    care - cared                        shave - shaved
  • when a one syllable verb ends in consonant + vowel + consonant we double the final consonant before '-ed':
  • stop - stopped                   plan - planned
    drop - dropped                 ban - banned
    rob - robbed                     crop - cropped
    step - stepped                   split - splitted
  • when the verb has more than one syllable, we double the final consonant before '-ed' only if the final syllable is stressed:
  • permit - permitted              admit - admitted
    prefer - preferred               regret - regretted
  • when the final syllable of the verb is not stressed, we do not double the final consonant before '-ed':
  • descover - descovered              remember - remembered
    visit - visited                              recover - recovered
    listen - listened                          develop - developed
  • In British English the verbs that end in -l double the final consonant before '-ed' (whether the final syllable is stressed or not):

  • travel - travelled                     cancel - cancelled
  • when the verb ends in two consonants (-st-, -rt-, -ck-, -sk-, -rn-, -lk-) we do not double the final consonant before '-ed':

  • post - posted                     trust - trusted
    start - started                     port - ported
    kick - kicked                     knock - knocked
    ask - asked                        mask - masked
    warn - warned                   turn - turned
    walk - walked                    talk - talked
  • when the verb ends in two vowel letters before the final consonant we do not double it:

  • boil - boiled                       exploit - exploited
    need - needed                   explain - explained
    shout - shouted                  found - founded
    want - wanted                   cook - cooked
 3. The Past Participal can be also used as an ajective in front of a noun: a broken window, a handwritten letter, the stolen money, etc.


 List of Irregular Verbs

 Using Participles








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