A past participle is a verb form we use with have or has to make the Present Perfect tense.

Examples:

I have visited Spain.
She has seen that movie.

🧠 The past participle tells us that something happened before now, but we don’t say exactly when.

The three main verb forms

In English, every verb has three main forms:

Base Form	Past Simple (Verb II)	Past Participle (Verb III)
go	went	gone
eat	ate	eaten
watch	watched	watched

We use:

• Base form → for now (I go to school every day.)
• Past simple → for yesterday (I went to school yesterday.)
• Past participle → with have/has (I have gone to school.)

Regular verbs

For regular verbs, the past participle ends in -ed (just like the past simple).

Base	Past	Past Participle
work	worked	worked
play	played	played
visit	visited	visited

Examples:

I have visited my grandparents.
We have played soccer many times.

Irregular verbs

Some verbs don’t follow the “-ed” rule.
These are called irregular verbs. You must learn them.

Base	Past	Past Participle
go	went	gone
see	saw	seen
do	did	done
eat	ate	eaten
have	had	had

Examples:

I have gone to Italy.
She has seen that movie before.
He has done his homework.

Why is it important?

You need the past participle to make the Present Perfect tense, which is used to talk about life experiences:

Have you ever been to Canada?
I have never tried sushi.
We have visited many cities.

📘 Common Irregular Verbs

This is a basic list of the most common irregular verbs in English.
It’s a great place to start, but remember, there are many more irregular verbs that you’ll learn as you continue studying.

👉 Focus on a few verbs each week and use them in real sentences.
The more you read, listen, and speak, the easier it will be to remember new ones naturally.

Keep this table as your starter guide, and you’ll build your verb knowledge step by step.

#	Base Form (Verb I)	Past Simple (Verb II)	Past Participle (Verb III)	Example Sentence
1	be	was / were	been	I’ve been to Italy.
2	become	became	become	He’s become more confident.
3	begin	began	begun	The class has just begun.
4	break	broke	broken	I’ve broken my glasses.
5	buy	bought	bought	She’s bought new shoes.
6	choose	chose	chosen	Have you chosen a movie?
7	come	came	come	They’ve come home.
8	do	did	done	He’s done his homework.
9	drink	drank	drunk	She’s drunk all the juice.
10	drive	drove	driven	He’s driven to work today.
11	eat	ate	eaten	Have you eaten yet?
12	feel	felt	felt	I’ve felt tired all day.
13	find	found	found	I’ve found my keys.
14	forget	forgot	forgotten	I’ve forgotten your name!
15	get	got	got	I’ve got a new job.
16	give	gave	given	They’ve given me a gift.
17	go	went	gone	We’ve gone to the park.
18	have	had	had	She’s had breakfast already.
19	know	knew	known	Have you known her long?
20	leave	left	left	She’s left her bag at home.
21	make	made	made	He’s made a cake.
22	meet	met	met	We’ve met before.
23	read	read /rɛd/	read /rɛd/	I’ve read that book.
24	say	said	said	She’s said sorry.
25	see	saw	seen	I’ve seen that movie.
26	take	took	taken	We’ve taken lots of photos.
27	tell	told	told	He’s told me the story.
28	think	thought	thought	I’ve thought about it.
29	wear	wore	worn	I’ve worn this jacket before.
30	write	wrote	written	He’s written three emails.

Let’s practice

Practice 1

Practice 2

Speaking

Choose a card and say the base form – simple past – past participle.

Example:

go – went- gone

If you don’t remember, you can check the table of irregular verbs