Verbs

Basic Verb Forms:

· Present tense

· Past tense

· Past participle: Uses the helping verb Has, Have, or Had along with the past tense of the verb

Ex: I have tried to be nice.

Regular Verb: Follows a predictable pattern through the verb forms

· Present: Jump

· Past: Jumped

· Past Participle: Have jumped

Irregular Verb: Follows no definite pattern through the verb forms

· Present: Sing

· Past: Sang

· Past Participle: Has sung

For regular verbs, the past participle is the same as the past tense:

I type.

I typed.

I have typed.

For irregular verbs, the past participle is often different:

I eat.

I ate.

I have eaten.

If you are using a helping verb (can, could, do, does, did, may, might, must, should, will, would, etc.), the helping verb indicates the tense and the verb that indicates the action remains in base form:

· I can run.

· She didn’t run.

· He may run.

· He wouldn’t run.

· They might run.

· They could run.