Past Participle · ProfeNórdico

The problem: the invisible column

Every other page in this section explains a tense. This one doesn’t. The participle is a piece of the verb, and on its own it doesn’t say when anything happened: eaten, gone, written — none of them is a sentence.

But without it you cannot build the present perfect, the past perfect or the passive voice. And there is a reason why it is easy to get wrong. Look:

Past simple	With have
I worked* yesterday.*	I have worked* a lot.*
I ate* yesterday.*	I have eaten* a lot.*

With work, the word after have is the same as the past: worked and worked. With eat they separate: ate and eaten.

The participle is a beam: on its own it isn't a house, but without it there is no roof.

Most of the English you learn at the start uses regular verbs, and in those the third form can’t be seen. So it is easy to conclude that English verbs have two forms. Then an irregular verb comes along, you reach for the form you know — the past — and out comes one of the most common mistakes with the perfect tenses:

~~She has went home.~~ · ~~I have ate.~~ · ~~Have you saw it?~~

The key idea: what comes in front of it?

Every English verb has three main forms, always in this order:

1. base2. past3. participle

1. base	2. past	3. participle
eat	ate	eaten
write	wrote	written
work	worked	worked

Form 2 is a verb on its own: it is the whole verb of the sentence, and it already says “past”. Form 3 never stands alone. It always has something in front of it that does the work of time and person. In each row below, what is in front changes, but the piece stays the same:

Sentence	In front of it…
I have written* to her.*	`have`
I had* already written the email.*	`had`
You should have written* it.*	`should have`
It was written* in 1605.*	`was`
a written* exam*	nothing: it is an adjective, before a noun

I have ___ that film.I ___ that film last week.She has ___ home.Don Quixote was ___ by Cervantes.We had ___ before the film.Have you ___ your homework?The window is ___.I ___ the bus this morning.Look! The baby is ___.

How it is built: a piece that never moves

With regular verbs there is nothing new to learn. Form 3 is the same -ed as form 2, with the same spelling and the same pronunciation you saw in chapter III:

live → lived → lived · study → studied → studied · stop → stopped → stopped

Most English verbs are regular, and for all of them you already know the participle.

And the piece never changes. Not for the person, not for the number, not for the time: all of that is carried by what comes in front of it.

In front	Participle	Example
I / you / we / they	eaten	They have eaten.
he / she / it	eaten	She has eaten.
past	eaten	We had eaten.
passive voice	eaten	The arepas were eaten.

So it never takes a plural -s — “the letters were written” — and never the -s of he / she / it: that goes on has. She has worked, never “she have works”.

I have ___ here for two years.She has ___ English since 2020.It has ___ all day.He has ___ smoking.We had ___ the tickets.The houses were ___ in 1900.She ___ finished.We have ___ the whole film.They have ___ to Berlin.

Irregular verbs: the old -en

In chapter III you saw why irregular verbs exist: they are the oldest and most used verbs, the ones that never switched to -ed. Their participles have the same history, and they come with a clue.

Those old verbs, the ones that never took -ed, made their participle with -en. It is an ending English shares with German, which still keeps it: essen → gegessen, schreiben → geschrieben, geben → gegeben. English kept it in many of its oldest verbs — eaten, written, given — and that is why it is the biggest group in the table.

Look at them by pattern, never as a column:

Pattern	Examples
End in -en / -n	eat → ate → eaten · write → wrote → written · give → gave → given · take → took → taken · speak → spoke → spoken · break → broke → broken · forget → forgot → forgotten · see → saw → seen · know → knew → known · fall → fell → fallen · go → went → gone · do → did → done
i → a → u	begin → began → begun · drink → drank → drunk · sing → sang → sung · swim → swam → swum · ring → rang → rung
Same as the past	have → had · make → made · say → said · buy → bought · think → thought · bring → brought · find → found · feel → felt · leave → left · send → sent · tell → told · get → got
All three the same	cut · put · hit · hurt · let · cost · read (spelt the same, but the past and the participle sound /red/)
Back to the base	come → came → come · become → became → become · run → ran → run
One of its own	be → was / were → been

Look at the i → a → u group: in chapter III you saw half of it, swim → swam. The participle adds the third vowel: swum. And the back to the base group is the one that surprises people most: I have come, she has run — never “I have came”.

The ten you use every day

If you only learn ten, make it these: they are the verbs you will use most.

Base	Past	Participle	Base	Past	Participle
be	was/were	been	make	made	made
have	had	had	say	said	said
do	did	done	see	saw	seen
go	went	gone	take	took	taken
get	got	got / gotten	come	came	come

Have you ever ___ in the sea?The film has already ___.We have ___ to help you.I have ___ him for years.They have ___ a new car.I've ___ her name.He has ___ too much coffee.She has ___ five kilometres.Has he ___ the email?

Where the piece goes

You saw the places in the table of the key idea. Here they are in the order you will meet them in the course, all with the same piece:

have + participle — present perfect (chapter VI)

“I have eaten.” What has happened to you and still counts now.

had + participle — past perfect (chapter VII)

“I had eaten before you arrived.” What happened before another past.

modal + have + participle — modals in the past

“You should have eaten.” What should, could or must have happened.

be + participle — the passive voice

“The arepas were eaten in five minutes.” What happens to something, whoever did it.

the participle alone — as an adjective

“a broken phone” · “a closed door”.

Each of these uses has its own chapter, and you don’t need to learn them here. What matters is that all five use the same piece: what comes in front changes, and the participle stays where it is.

A longhouse goes up on identical beams. So do the perfect tenses.

You should have ___ earlier.Spanish is ___ in twenty countries.I had never ___ snow before that trip.My phone is ___.This bridge was ___ in 1950.She must have ___ the bus.I couldn't have ___ it without you.Had you ___ her before?

Common mistakes

Nearly all of them come from using the wrong piece.

Common mistake

She has went home.

She has gone home.

This is the mistake. went is form 2, a verb that stands alone. After has you need the participle: gone.

Common mistake

I seen it.

I've seen it. / I saw it.

The participle on its own is not a sentence: it needs something in front of it. Either add the auxiliary (I’ve seen it) or use the past (I saw it).

Common mistake

The church built in 1700.

The church was built in 1700.

Without was, the sentence says that the church built something. When something has an action done to it, English uses was + form 3.

She left, and now she's at home.Which one is right?Which one is right?Which one is right?Builders finished the church in 1700.Which one is right?

Check you understood

Don’t look back up. Answer out loud, then tap the question.

Check

Tap a question to see its answer.

Why do you never notice that work has a third form?
Because it is regular: its past and its participle are identical, worked and worked. The third form exists, but you can't tell it apart.
What test tells you whether to use saw or seen?
Look at what comes in front. With have, had, a modal + have or be in front, it is form 3: seen. With nothing in front, form 2: saw.
What is wrong with "She has wrote the letter"?
Wrote is form 2. After has you need form 3: "She has written the letter."
Say the three forms of go, be, come and swim.
go → went → gone · be → was/were → been · come → came → come · swim → swam → swum.
Why can't a participle make a sentence on its own, as in "I seen it"?
Because it carries no time. Something in front of it — have, had, was — has to place it. Without that, use the past: I saw it.
Is "is" in front always a sign of form 3?
No. When the word after it ends in -ing, it is a continuous tense: "She is sleeping". The test chooses between form 2 and form 3 only.

Practice

Out loud

Turn each note into a full sentence. Watch the third form of the irregular verbs.

Ialreadyhaveeat
shehavegohome
?youhaveseemy keys
wehadeatbefore the film
Ineverhaveswimin the sea
theyhavebuya car
youshould havecome
Ihaveforgetyour name
the filmalreadyhavebegin
shehavedrinktoo much coffee
the bookwaswritein 1605
the housewasbuildin 1950
my phoneisbreak
Iseeheryesterday

Show answers

I've already eaten.
She has gone home.
Have you seen my keys?
We had eaten before the film.
I've never swum in the sea.
They have bought a car.
You should have come.
I've forgotten your name.
The film has already begun. (Also: has already started.)
She has drunk too much coffee.
The book was written in 1605.
The house was built in 1950.
My phone is broken.
I saw her yesterday.

In writing

Write form 3 of the verb in brackets.

Answer first, then tap "Show answer".

Have you ever sushi?(eat)
Show answer
Have you ever eaten sushi?
She has three books.(write)
Show answer
She has written three books.
I had never the sea before.(see)
Show answer
I had never seen the sea before.
We have here since 2019.(live)
Show answer
We have lived here since 2019.
This bridge was in 1890.(build)
Show answer
This bridge was built in 1890.
You should have me.(tell)
Show answer
You should have told me.
The glass is .(break)
Show answer
The glass is broken.
They have just home.(come)
Show answer
They have just come home.

And now with no help — write the whole sentence:

Write it

A full sentence for each situation, with no hints. For each verb, look at what comes in front of it.

Answer first, then tap "Show answer".

Your sister left for work, and she is there now. →
Show answer
She has gone to work.
You and your friend got the tickets before the day of the concert. Say it with had. →
Show answer
We had bought the tickets before.
Workers finished that bridge in 1950. Say it about the bridge. →
Show answer
That bridge was built in 1950.
Your friend didn't phone you, and you wish they had. Use should. →
Show answer
You should have called me.
In your whole life, snow is something you have never seen. →
Show answer
I've never seen snow.
You saw your old teacher in the street yesterday. →
Show answer
I saw my old teacher in the street yesterday.
Nobody could get in: someone had closed the door. Describe the door. →
Show answer
The door was closed.