Just add -ed to a verb to make it past tense:
talk, talked, have talked
touch, touched, have touched
study, studied, have studied (okay, so change the y to an i rule)
bake, baked, have baked
work, worked, have worked
fly, flew, have flown — huh? what????
Irregular: that’s what.
And there are many, many irregular verbs like fly … and fall … and go … and teach.
Some verbs don’t ever change regardless of tense: set, cost, burst
And some are used incorrectly — frequently.
It isn’t have went. It is have gone.
- It isn’t have ate. It is have eaten.
- It isn’t have rang. It is have rung.
- It isn’t have swam. It is have swum.
- It isn’t have drank. It is have drunk.
And if it is a picture, you hung it — or have hung it.
Unless you put a noose around it — then you hanged it.
There are some other particularly tricky ones too:
How about shrink? My blouse shrunk? No, it shrank. But it has shrunk. And only heads are shrunken.
The boat sunk? No. It sank. But it has sunk.
What about sneak? Is the past tense sneaked or snuck? It used to be sneaked, but more recently, snuck is the more common past tense. And there is no snack (Sorry about that. The kitchen is closed.)
A drug is a pharmaceutical or something one is addicted to. And if you are drugged, you have had too much of it. Drug is NOT the past tense of drag.
Drag is a regular verb. Drag, dragged, have dragged. Not drug.
No rhyme or reason here. You just have to memorize them. Or if you speak English as a native language, you just (maybe) know them because they “sound right.”
A very special thank you to Eileen O’Farrell for the suggestion of this topic!!!!
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The difference between e.g. [verb form] and have [verb form] is that the first is the Past TENSE where what follows the ‘have’ is the Past PARTICIPLE It’s just that for most verbs the PT and PP are the same.
SNUCK (even indicated incorrect as I type it here!) started out as a sort of ‘Illiterate’ ‘red neck’ jokey word and just, well, stuck (see what I did there?)
The difference is between WEAK verbs and STRONG verbs. Weak verbs take the ‘-ed’ ending whereas strong verbs do not. ALL the -EAK verbs are weak.
So
LEAKED not LUCK
FREAKED not FRUCK
WREAKED not WRUCK
BEAKED not BUCK
And definitely, undoubtedly, indubitably, indisputably ***SNEAKED***
Is stuck the past tense of steak? 😉
What about the verb “cast”?
Yesterday we broadcast (not broadcasted) that the president . . . .
We were wrong last week when we forecast (not forecasted) cooler weather for tonight . . . .
This morning I cast (not casted) a dozen times in that creek and not a single fish bit.
I know this is old school, but the fishing example strikes me as a clincher.
Thank you! That is a great example of verbs that stay the same in the past. We cast the play also. Not casted.
You’re welcome! I learned I have been using some words incorrectly! Eileen
😉