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English verbs have five basic forms:
the base, - S, -ing, past,
and past participle
forms.
The
past
participles
for
regular verbs are the same
as their
past forms (look-looked-looked
and study-studied-studied),
for example. For
irregular
verbs, the past and
past participle
forms
are different (for
example, be- was/were-been
and
go-went-gone).
The past participle is commonly used
in
several situations:
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Past
participles are used as part of
the
present and
past perfect
tenses (both
"regular"
and continuous).
The non-continuous present perfect tense
uses has
or have
+ the past
participle;
the present perfect
continuous
tense
uses has or have +
been (the
past
participle of BE) + the
- ing form of the main verb.
Examples:
He has (He's) taken a vacation. /
He has (He's) been taking a vacation.
I have (I've) taken my medicine.
I have (I've) been taking that medicine for three
days.
The
non-continuous past perfect tense
uses
had +
the past participle;
the past perfect continuous
tense uses had
+
been + the - ing form
of the
main verb.
Examples:
She had (She'd) lived here for 10 years
when I met her.
She had (She'd) been living here for
10 years
when I met her.
He had (He'd) waited a long time before
he left.
He
had (He'd) been waiting a long time
before he
left.
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Past
participles are also used to make
one of the
past forms for the modal verbs
(modal auxiliaries).
These forms use a modal +
have + the past participle.
Examples:
could have gone
may have
been
should have known
might have
seen
would have written
must have
forgotten
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Another use
for past participles is
as participial
adjectives (verb forms used as adjectives).
Participial adjectives may be used both
singly
and in phrases.
Examples:
We were bored / excited /
interested.
We
were bored with / excited about /
interested in
the movie.
It's broken / gone / done.
It's broken into two pieces / gone from
where
I usually put it / done by machine, not
by hand.
Abandoned, he didn't know what to do.
Abandoned by everyone he had considered
to be
his friends, he didn't know what to do.
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One more use
of past participles is
in making the
past form of infinitives (to
+ the base form).
Examples:
to be / to have been;
to
live / to have lived;
to go / to have gone;
to have / to have had.
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Special Notes:
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In the "modal perfect" tenses,
the modal auxiliary
and have are usually contracted in spoken English
(though this is not as common in written
English):
could have --> could've;
may
have --> may've;
might have --> might've;
must have --> must've;
should
have --> should've;
would have -->
would've
When
've is spoken quickly in casual conversation,
the sound changes to something like "a"
(the second
vowel sound in "sofa").
The common word "of" is
pronounced the
same way in quick, casual speech.
Because of this,
people sometimes write wrong forms
such as *could
of, *may of, *might of, etc.
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Both -
ing forms (present
participles)
and past
participles
are used as adjectives
(for example,
boring / bored and exciting / excited),
butthe
meanings are not the
same:
He's
boring = He bores
someone.
He's
bored = Something
(or someone)
bores him.
They're exciting =
They excite someone.
They're excited = Something
(someone) excites him.
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The past infinitive is not very common
except in
very formal writing or when it is important
to
show two different times:
Tennyson: "'Tis better to have
loved and lost than
not to have
loved at all." (This is formal language.
Also,
the poet makes a contrast between
now--
"'Tis
better"
[It is better]--and
the past--"to have
loved and lost" [loving
and losing were in the past].)
I'm sorry to disappoint
you. / I'm sorry to
have
disappointed
you. (In the first
sentence,
"be sorry"
and
"disappoint" are both present, but
in
the second sentence "be sorry" is present and
"disappoint"
is
past.)
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