In order to form the Present Perfect and Past Perfect tenses you need to know the past participles. Because many English verbs are irregular, it can be difficult to remember them. Here is a handy reference list of the most common irregular past participles.
How to remember irregular verbs and irregular past participles
Most irregular verbs are very common in English, which means you will see or hear them often. This makes it a little easier to remember them. But there are also some common patterns:
– the ‘en’ ending (break – broke – broken; write – wrote – written; hide – hid – hidden etc)
– the ‘ing’, ‘ang’, ‘ung’ pattern (ring – rang – rung; sing – sang – sung etc)
Some common verbs are also formed from others, which means the past participle is the same:
– give / forgive (given / forgiven)
– come / become (come / become)
– stand / understand (stood / understood)
A few verbs don’t change at all. For example:
read – read – read (the pronunciation changes from the present /reed/ to the past tense and past participle /red/
cut – cut – cut (no pronunciation change)
put – put – put (no pronunciation change)
Sometimes, more than one ending is possible:
– dreamed / dreamt
– learned / learnt
List of the most common irregular verbs and irregular past participles
Irregular Past Participles
Level: Elementary and above
Now go to the next page where you can get the phrases you need to leave phone messages and practise your listening: English Speaking: Phone Messages
