Forming and Using Verb Tenses

English verb tenses are formed by combining one of the principal forms of a main verb with one or more auxiliary verbs. There are four principal forms: basic or root, present participle, past and past participle.

The basic form (or root) is the form listed in the dictionary, which is generally the first-person singular of the simple present tense (except in the case of the verb to be):

• walk
• paint
• accompany
• drop
• think
• grow
• sing

The infinitive form is a compound verb made up of the preposition to and the basic form:

• to walk
• to paint
• to accompany
• to drop
• to think
• to grow
• to sing

To form the present participle, the suffix ing is generally added to the basic form:

• walking
• painting
• accompanying
• dropping
• thinking
• growing
• singing

Note that the present participle cannot function as a predicate unless it has an auxiliary verb. For example, the word group I walking to the store is an incomplete and ungrammatical sentence, while the word group I am walking to the store is a complete sentence. The present participle is often used as a modifier.

The past tense is a little trickier. If the verb is regular (or weak) add ed, d, or t to the present form. When a basic form ends in y, it is generally changed to i. In many cases the terminal consonant is doubled before adding ed (see Spelling Words with Double Consonants). For example:

• walked
• painted
• accompanied
• dropped
• thought
• grew
• sang

The past participle of regular verbs is usually identical to the past tense, while the past participle of irregular verbs is often different:

• walked
• painted
• accompanied
• dropped
• thought
• grown (past form: grew)
• sung (past form: sang)

Irregular verbs

The past participle and the past tense of irregular verbs are not generally formed by adding (e)d or t. For example, the past tense of the verb break is broke and the past participle is broken.

The following verbs form their past tenses (past and past participle) irregularly: