Verbs: basic forms

Verbs: the three basic forms

Main verbs have three basic forms: the base form, the past form and the -ed form (sometimes called the ‘-ed participle’):

• base form: used as the infinitive form, with to or without to (Do you want to come with us? I can’t leave now.) and for the present simple (I always read before I go to sleep every night.) except third person singular, which uses the -s form (She works at the university.)
• past form: used for the past simple (He opened the door and went out.)
• -ed form: used after auxiliary have and be (I*’ve** always wanted a piano and I was* given one last week.).

How dictionaries show the forms

The base form is normally the form used as a heading in a dictionary. Here is a typical dictionary entry for a verb. The base form is sing, the past form is sang and the -ed form is sung:

sing /sɪŋ/

verb (sang, sung) MAKE MUSIC 1. [I or T] to make musical sounds with the voice, usually a tune with words:

The children sang two songs by Schubert at the school concert.

[source: Cambridge Advanced Learner’s Dictionary]

Examples of the three basic forms

When you look up a verb in the dictionary, you will often find the three forms listed together, especially for irregular verbs. Here are some examples (regular verbs are printed in blue; irregular verbs are printed in black).

base form	past simple	-ed form
open	opened	opened
love	loved	loved
watch	watched	watched
swim	swam	swum
go	went	gone
make	made	made
put	put	put

Pronunciation and meaning

warning

Some verbs have a similar pronunciation but a different meaning:

• We love to just lie on the beach.
• Not: We love to just lay on the beach.

Lie/lay/lain is used without an object. Lay/laid/laid must have an object: e.g. I’ll lay the table then we can eat.

Other verbs like this are: affect/effect, bare/bear, fine/find, note/notice, raise/rise.

warning

Sometimes a verb is confused with another word which sounds similar but is from a different word class:

• I don’t want to lose contact with my school friends.
• Not: I don’t want to loose contact with my school friends.
• (Lose is a verb. Loose is an adjective, e.g. These shoes are too loose; I need a smaller size.)

Other pairs like this are:

advise (verb)/advice (noun), practise (verb)/practice (noun).

Regular verbs

Most verbs in English are regular. Regular verbs add -ing to the base form to make the -ing form, and -ed to the base form to make the past simple and the -ed form.

base form	-ing form	past simple	-ed form
look	looking	looked	looked
listen	listening	listened	listened
play	playing	played	played
work	working	worked	worked

Base forms which end in -e

If the base form already ends in -e (e.g. move, face, like), then -d is added to make the past form and the -ed form. The final -e is not used in the -ing form.

base form	-ing form	past simple	-ed form
move	moving	moved	moved
face	facing	faced	faced

Base forms which end in a consonant plus -y

If the base form ends in a consonant plus -y (e.g. carry, hurry, study, try, worry), then -y changes to -ied to make the past form and the -ed form. The -y ending does not change in the -ing form.

base form	-ing form	past simple	-ed form
study	studying	studied	studied
hurry	hurrying	hurried	hurried

Base forms which end in vowel + single consonant

If the base form ends in a vowel followed by a single consonant and if the last syllable is stressed (e.g. begin, drop, occur, refer, run, shop, stop, transfer), then the consonant is doubled. If the last syllable is not stressed (e.g. benefit, happen, open, order, profit), then the consonant is not doubled. (Stressed syllables are underlined in the table.)

base form	-ing form	past simple	-ed form
commit	committing	committed	committed
develop	developing	developed	developed
prefer	preferring	preferred	preferred
visit	visiting	visited	visited

Vowel + l

The consonant is doubled if the base form ends in a vowel + l, whether the last syllable is stressed or not.

base form	-ing form	past simple	-ed form
travel	travelling	travelled	travelled
control	controlling	controlled	controlled

See also

• Spelling

Person, number and tense

Regular verbs all use the same endings to indicate person (first, second or third), number (singular or plural) and tense (present simple or past simple).

Person (first/second/third)

Person relates to the type of subject. I and we indicate the first person, you (singular and plural) indicates the second person and he, she, it, they and noun subjects indicate the third person. Regular verbs have the same form for all persons, but third person singular present simple ends in -s:

• I love Japanese food.
• My sister lives with two other students.
• They worked for a French company based in London.
• She arrived at the office around nine o’clock most days.

Number (singular/plural)

Number indicates whether the subject is singular or plural. Regular verbs have the same form for singular and plural, but third person singular present simple ends in -s:

• We love historical dramas on TV.
• They lived in a huge house in the country somewhere.
• He works terribly hard.
• He always arrived late.

Tense (present/past)

Tense indicates whether the verb is present or past. The past simple of regular verbs ends in -ed for all persons and numbers:

• They loved everything about Australia.
• She lived in Spain for a couple of years.
• I worked on Saturday so I stayed at home on Monday.
• The police arrived within minutes.

warning

We always need an e in the -ed form (past simple and -ed form) of regular verbs:

• I don’t know what happened at the last meeting.
• Not: I don’t know what happend at the last meeting.

Other verbs which are often misspelt in this way are: bother, complain, consider, join, recover, remain.

The -es ending

If the verb ends in -ch, -s, -ss, -sh, -x or -z, then -es is added to make the third person singular present simple.

watch	watches	She watches the news every night at ten o’clock.
pass	passes	Luckily, the bus passes by my house.
wish	wishes	She wishes that she had gone to university.
fix	fixes	My friend, who’s a mechanic, fixes our car for us.

See also

• Present simple (I work)
• Past simple (I worked)
• Subject–verb agreement

Irregular verbs

Irregular verbs follow the same rules as regular verbs for the present simple but have different forms for the past simple and the -ed form.

Some irregular verbs have the same form for the base, the past simple and the -ed form, e.g. hit, hit, hit; let, let, let; put, put, put.

Some irregular verbs share a form for the past simple and -ed form which is different from the base form, e.g. bring, brought, brought; feel, felt, felt; have, had, had.

Some irregular verbs have a base form which ends in -d and a past simple and -ed form which end in -t, e.g. bend, bent, bent; build, built, built; send, sent, sent; spend, spent, spent.

Some irregular verbs have a different form for the base form, the past simple and the -ed form, e.g. drink, drank, drunk; go, went, gone; take, took, taken.

See also

• Irregular verbs

Be

The verb be has different forms for different persons in the present simple and past simple.

base form	present simple	past simple	-ed form
be	Ishe, he, ityou, we, they	amisare	I, she, he, ityou, we, they	waswere	been

See also

• Be