Don’t be misled by the title of this post. We are not talking about verbs that are so exceptional that you should use them. We are talking about verbs that are exceptions to the rule. And often there are more exceptions than rules!
Specifically, we are talking about the forms of a verb. They are used to create various tenses, but we are not talking tenses here. For more information about when to use each tense, refer back to this blog post or this one.
Verbs have several forms:
- Present tense: for example, walk
- Present participle: for example, walking
- Past tense: for example, walked
- Past participle: for example have walked (had walked, will have walked)
The “rule” (to put it loosely) is to add -ed to a present tense to make a past tense and a past participle: walked.
If the verb already ends in an e, all you have to do is add the d: bake/baked.
If the verb ends in a y, generally we turn the y into an i and add -ed: study/studied.
Many verbs do not follow this rule. Many of them have some type of “other” form that stays the same in both past and past participle forms. Here are some of those:
- sit, sat, have sat
- lead, led, have led
- bring, brought, have brought (as a kid, I did think it was brang and brung!)
- hang, hung, have hung
- lay, laid, have laid
- teach, taught, have taught
- catch, caught, have caught
- build, built, have built
You get the idea. And most of the time, people don’t have a problem with these. However, there are many verbs that have three different forms. The present is different from the past, which is different from the past participle. And with many of these verbs, people keep using the past tense form for the past participle. My seventh grade students were big offenders, but many educated adults I know — or have heard speak — do the same thing.
You will know what I mean by this list. Here are some common of the more common mistakes:
- I ate, but I have eaten. Not I have ate some cake already.
- I began, but I have begun. Not I have began my speech.
- I bit, but I have bitten. Not I have bit into the cookie.
- I broke, but I have broken. Not I have broke the vase..
- I chose, but I have chosen. Not I have chose that dress.
- I drank, but I have drunk. Not I have drank all the water.
- I forgave, but I have forgiven. Not I have forgave her for lying.
- I froze, but I have frozen. Not I have froze the leftovers.
- I rode, but I have ridden. Not I have rode a horse before.
- I rang, but I have rung. Not I have rang the doorbell.
- I ran, but I have run. Not I have ran a mile.
- I sang, but I have sung. Not I have sang in front of an audience.
- I sank, but I have sunk. Not I have sank when I tried to swim.
- I spoke, but I have spoken. Not I have spoke to her about it.
- I stole, but I have stolen. Not I have stole the letters.
- I swam, but I have swum. Not I have swam every day this week.
- I wrote, but I have written. Not I have wrote him a letter.
- I went, but I have gone. Not I have went to work today.
Those are some of the common ones that people tend to misuse. And although I have used the pronoun I with all the examples, of course the verb is the same with you, he, she, they, them, it, and we.
Stay tuned for Part 2 next week. Or the week after.
Grammar Diva News and Such
I will be the featured speaker at Napa Valley Writers, a branch of the California Writers Club, on Wednesday evening, March 8.
Is there something you would like to see written about on this blog? Please send me an e-mail and let me know.
Do you have a favorite grammar/punctuation/language pet peeve? Send an e-mail, and maybe I will get enough new ones to do a new post about them.
Is there something you would like to say to this audience? Send me an e-mail about writing a guest post for this blog.
The e-mail is info@bigwords101.com.
Verbs don´t have only 3 parts. When consideing them, they have 5. This is, of course,
not forgetting the ing form and the third person singular in the present.
So we have for example: go, goes, went, gone and going.
Thanks for the comment. It’s all how you interpret it. Same thing with the part of speech: there are variations on the number of parts of speech there are.
A little off topic I suppose, but what do you think of “spelt” instead of spelled, or “dreamt” in place of dreamed”? I see it all the time and it makes me crazy!
I don’t care for either spelt or dreamt, and I don’t use them. However, apparently they are both correct, but not preferred, alternatives to spelled and dreamed. I recommend everyone use spelled and dreamed 🙂
Have you ever heard the Afro -American dialect? It reflects a most interesting kind of English.
Are you talking about ebonics???? Yes, I have heard of it, but not too familiar otherwise.
Hi Arlene. Don’t you just cringe when you hear Trump speak? Love your messages.
Thank you for the kind words! I cringe when I see or hear trump, but generally when they show a clip on TV, I mute it. I cannot deal with it at all.And it isn’t just the grammar and vocabulary!
Many people also incorrectly use the past participle form as if it were the past tense, especially the “sink, sank, sunk” variety of verbs.
They say, “I sunk the ball on the first try,” when they should say, “I sank the ball…”
Wrong: I rung the bell. Right: I rang the bell.
Wrong: I drunk it all down. Right: I drank it all down.
There are many other such common errors but I can’t think of them right now! Can you?
You are right on that one. I think that misuse sounds even worse, and I am not sure it is as common.I “shrunk the shirt” is another one. Can anyone think of more? Thanks for that insight!