Past participles in English: when to form them and how to use them

Are you feeling unsure about past participles in English? Maybe you’ve noticed how they seem to appear in all kinds of places. Or perhaps you’re confused when they don’t follow a regular pattern. 

Well, take a deep breath because with this guide, you’ll understand everything you need to know about this important topic!

In this post:

• The past participle in English
• When to use the past participle
• How to form the past participle
  • Regular verbs
  • Irregular verbs
• Examples of common past participles

What is the past participle in English?

The past participle is a verb form in English. It is used in a variety of structures, including as part of other verb forms and even as an adjective!

For regular verbs, the past participle looks the same as the simple past form of a verb. For irregular verbs, the past participle may look different from the simple past form. In either case, however, the past participle is used differently from the simple past.

When to use the past participle in English

The past participle is used for:

1. The perfect tenses (present, past, and future)

The past participle is used in conjunction with the auxiliary verb to have to form the present perfect, past perfect, and future perfect.

I’ve seen that movie three times!
He had learned English before moving to the United States.
I’ll have finished my shower by the time you make breakfast.

2. The passive voice
The passive structure in English also uses the past participle.

The money was stolen from her wallet!
After the goal, the score was shouted from across the field.
No one confessed, but the cheesecake had definitely been eaten.

3. Adjectives
The past participle is the form used as an adjective.

Oh no! There’s a lost dog in the park.
Junior scooped up the last bit of melted ice cream.
The polished sculpture impressed Oscar.

How to form the past participle in English

Regular verbs

The past participle of regular verbs is formed by adding -ed to the end of the base verb:

However, if the base form of a regular verb already ends with -e, you only need to add -d to form the past:

If a regular verb’s base form ends with a consonant followed by -y, swap out -y for -i and add -ed:

Lastly, if the base form of a regular verb ends with the pattern consonant + vowel + consonant, you usually double the final consonant and then add -ed:

Irregular verbs

In addition to the regular verbs above, there are also many irregular verbs in English. These don’t follow the typical pattern of adding -ed when forming the past participle, and so they must instead be learned on their own. 

Luckily, there are many patterns that you can look out for:

• Verbs with no change between the base verb and the past participle (base form
  cut
  → participle
  cut
  )
• Past participles ending in -t (
  feel
  →
  felt
  )
• Past participles ending with the sound “d” (
  pay
  →
  paid
  )
• Base verbs with -ee or -ea change to -e- in the participle (
  feed
  →
  fed
  )
• Base verbs ending in a vowel and -w change to -own or -awn in the past participle (
  know
  →
  known
  )

Most common past participles in English

While It might seem like there are a lot of irregular verbs in English, don’t worry! There are plenty of regular verbs as well. Use the table below to learn the past participles of both regular and irregular verbs:

Strengthen your English with more verb forms

From the perfect tenses, to the passive voice, to adjectives, there are a lot of uses for past participles. 

For more about English verbs, save these guides for the simple present, the future tense, infinitives, and the verb to be! 💪