Regular verbs

If a verb is regular, the past simple and past participle end in ~ed. For example;

infinitive: clean, finish, use, paint, stop, carry

past simple, past participle: cleaned, finished, used, painted, stopped, carried

For spelling rules, see Appendix 6.

For the past simple (I cleaned/they finished/she carried etc.), see Unit 5.

We use the past participle to make the perfect tenses and for all the passive forms.

Perfect tenses (have/has/had cleaned):

* I have cleaned the windows. (present perfect - see Units 7-8)

* They were still working. They hadn't finished. (past perfect - see Unit 15)

Passive (is cleaned/was cleaned etc.):

* He was carried out of the room. (past simple passive) see Units 41-43

* This gate has just been painted. (present perfect passive) J

Irregular verbs

When the past simple/past participle do not end in ~ed (for example, I saw/I have seen), the verb is irregular.

With some irregular verbs, all three forms (infinitive, past simple and past participle) are the same. For example, hit:

* Don't hit me. (infinitive)

* Somebody hit me as I came into the room. (past simple)

* I've never hit anybody in my life. (past participle-present perfect)

* George was hit on the head by a stone. (past participle-passive)

With other irregular verbs, the past simple is the same as the past participle (but different from the infinitive). For example, tell -> told:

* Can you tell me what to do? (infinitive)

* She told me to come back the next day. (past simple)

* Have you told anybody about your new job? (past participle-present perfect)

* I was told to come back the next day. (past participle-passive)

With other irregular verbs, all three forms are different. For example, wake -> woke/woken:

* I'll wake you up. (infinitive)

* I woke up in the middle of the night. (past simple)

* The baby has woken up. (past participle - present perfect)

* I was woken up by a loud noise. (past participle - passive)

1.3 The following verbs can be regular or irregular:

burn -> burned or burnt

dream -> dreamed or dreamt [dremt]

lean -> leaned or leant [lent]

learn -> learned or learnt

smell -> smelled or smelt

spell -> spelled or spelt

spill -> spilled or spilt

spoil -> spoiled or spoilt

So you can say:

* I leant out of the window. or I leaned out of the window.

* The dinner has been spoilt. or The dinner has been spoiled.

In British English the irregular form (burnt/learnt etc.) is more usual.

For American English, see Appendix 7.