Past tense vs. past participle of irregular verbs

The simple past-tense form always occurs alone, without a helping verb. The past participle is used with a helping verb to form the perfect tenses and the passive voice.

Heading: Past tense. Example sentence: Last July, we went to Paris.

Heading: Helping verb plus past participle. Example sentence: We have gone to Paris twice.

Choose the past-participle form if the verb in your sentence requires a helping verb; choose the past-tense form if the verb does not require a helping verb.

Example sentence with editing. Original sentence: Yesterday we seen an unidentified flying object. Revised sentence: Yesterday we saw an unidentified flying object. Explanation: The word 'seen' has been replaced by 'saw.'

The past-tense forms saw and sank are required because there is no helping verb.

Example sentence with editing. Original sentence: The truck was apparently stole while the driver ate lunch. Revised sentence: The truck was apparently stolen while the driver ate lunch. Explanation: The word 'stole has been replaced by ' stolen.'

Because of the helping verbs was and had, the past-participle forms are required: was stolen, had fallen.

Survey of verb tenses

Exercises:

Irregular verbs 1

Irregular verbs 2

Irregular verbs 3