There are five forms that English verbs (the action words) can take, whether they are regular or irregular, and while this may seem complex, there are some languages, such as Arabic, French and Spanish, that have dozens of possibilities, or Basque, which has hundreds!
The base form
The base form of a verb is similar to the infinitive of a verb. It is the form of the verb that is shown when you look it up in a dictionary. In English the infinitive is written with the preposition ‘to’, but the base form stands alone. For example,
- (to) walk
- (to) play
- (to) jump
- (to) eat
This base word remains unchanged when used to form the simple future tense. For example,
- I will walk
- You will play
- She will jump
- They will eat
This form also remains unchanged when using the simple present tense except in the third-person singular subject:
The third-person singular
The subject of a sentence is known as the first, second or third person, and this subject can be singular, as in 1st person ‘I’, or plural, as in 1st person ‘we’. When forming the present simple tense, most subjects use the base form of the verb, but the third person singular, he, she or it, always has an added -s when used in the simple present tense:
- 1st person singular: I eat
- 2nd person singular: You eat
- 3rd person singular: He/ She/ It eats
- 1st person plural: We eat
- 2nd person plural: You eat
- 3rd person plural: They eat
- 1st person singular: I jump
- 2nd person singular: You jump
- 3rd person singular: She/ He/ It jumps
- 1st person plural: We jump
- 2nd person plural: You jump
- 3rd person plural: They jump
Please keep in mind that there are a small number of irregular verbs in English that follow their own unique pattern. An example of these is as follows.
To be:
- I am
- You are
- He/ She/ It is
- We are
- You are
- They are
Some other verbs not only add an -s in the third-person singular form, but may slightly change their spelling to accommodate the addition of the -s. For example,
- To go = She goes
- To do = He does
- To try = It tries
- To fly = It flies
- To cry = He cries
- To rely = She relies
- To teach = She teaches
- To catch = He catches
- To address = He addresses
- To press = It presses
- To buzz = It buzzes
- To waltz = She waltzes
- To fix = He fixes
- To flex = It flexes
As the above examples show you, these generally follow closely related patterns, such as a -y being converted to -ie before the -s is added, or an extra -e being added after an existing -s, or words ending in -ch, -o, -x or -z.
The past tense
To use the simple past tense with a regular verb, add -ed. The following are examples taken from the base form as shown previously,
- I walked
- I played
- I jumped
However, there are almost 200 irregular verbs in the English language, and these verbs are not conjugated with -ed in the simple past tense, but change form less predictably. For example,
- I eat = I ate
- I speak = I spoke
- I write = I wrote
- I give = I gave
- I take = I took
The regular verbs in English number around 200,000, so these words are in the minority. However, irregular verbs in English tend to be verbs that are frequently used, so it may sometimes seem that there are more of them!
Note that when using the past tense, whether a verb is regular or irregular, there is no third-person difference in the verb according to the subject of the sentence.
- I spoke = He spoke
- I played = She played
- I jumped = It jumped
Notably, there are also some spelling irregularities even with the regular -ed conjugation. For example, verbs ending in SOME consonants such as:
- To stop = He stopped
- To peep = He peeped
- To grab = She grabbed
- To climb = You climbed
- To sail = I sailed
- To travel = I travelled (Note that this would be spelt ‘traveled’ with one -l in US English. For further information on the spelling differences between British and American English, please see the relevant post.
As you can see with each example above, some consonants become double with the addition of -ed and some do not!
There are also other exceptions, such as that a verb that already ends in an -e will simply have a -d added:
- To dive = I dived
- To vote = I voted
- To joke = He joked
The past participle
The past participle for many verbs is not conjugated but takes on a different form, this is especially the case if the verb is irregular and already has a different form in the simple past:
- I eat = I ate = I have eaten
- I speak = I spoke = I have spoken
- I write = I wrote = I have written
- I give = I gave = I have given
- I take = I took = I have taken
When a verb is regular, its past participle form is usually the same as its simple past form:
- I played = I have played
- I jumped = I have jumped
- I stopped = I have stopped
- I grabbed = I have grabbed
- I climbed = I have climbed
There are also some exceptions to this. Some verbs past participle forms are the same as their present simple form, and some verbs have the same present simple, past simple and past participle form. As always, be aware that the English language has evolved through multiple borrowed languages over many centuries and there are few set rules, but many majority rules!
The past participle is also used to form the passive voice. For more on this, please visit the relevant post.
The present participle
The present participle form of a verb is the ending -ing. This is used when expressing a verb in the present continuous form:
- I walk = I am walking
- I play = I am playing
- I jump = I am jumping
- I eat = I am eating
This -ing participle remains the same when using the verb in the future or past tense. For more detail on the continuous tense, please see the relevant article.
Conclusion
In summary, verbs change according to tense and according to person in English.
The happy news is that English verbs do not change according to quantity or gender, as with some languages such as Polish. So these forms are the extent to which any verb in the English language will change or be conjugated.
For further guidance on the English tenses, please see the article on the English tenses.
Exercises to practise
Please, do enter any questions or comments below.
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