Forming Participles

We explore the different forms of participles in English grammar, including present, past, and perfect participles. You’ll learn how to recognize and use each type effectively in sentences. Whether you’re brushing up on grammar basics or preparing for more advanced language learning, this video will make understanding participles simple and clear. Don’t forget to like, subscribe, and hit the notification bell for more grammar tips and lessons!

Grammar

Practice how to differentiate Forming Participles.

Transcript

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Introduction:

• Host: Hello and welcome to the English Magnet. Today’s video: Forming Participles Made Easy! Seemingly, participles pop up everywhere in day-to-day English, they are a fundamental part of the language and knowing how to form them is key. Understanding how to write them is crucial, so we’ll break down all three types: the present participle, the past participle, and the perfect participle. We’ll pay special attention to the irregular forms too! Here we go! 

Part 1: Present Participles

Alright, so present participles are the easiest form to remember it’s the -ING form. They can be verbs, adjectives or nouns, but their formation is always the same. You basically start with the base form (infinitive) of a verb and you add -ing at the end, that’s it! 

Example: 

play – playing

think – thinking

ski – skiing

swing – swinging (yes, -inging ending is correct) 🙂 

Luckily, when talking you can simply add -ING to an infinitive and you know you’re golden. However, when writing you ought to remember some special cases to avoid spelling mistakes. 

1. Remove the final e – when the base form ends in -e. 

Example: 

vote – voting

use – using

juxtapose – juxtaposing

Keep in mind that ‘be’ and verbs ending in -ee don’t lose an -e. 

Example: 

be – being (not bing!) 😉 

decree – decreeing

flee – fleeing

2. Double the final consonant (bcdfghjklmnpqrstvwxz shown on screen) of a short base form ending with the pattern consonant-vowel-consonant or CVC. But not when it ends with w, x or z. 

Example: 

slap – slapping 

bob – bobbing

slow – slowing

Never add a consonant if the verb already ends in the double consonant (anyways it wouldn’t fit the CVC rule). 

Example: 

spill – spilling 

ahh – ahhing 

pass – passing 

3. Now, this next one is tricky. When you have a base form with two syllables and a CVC ending, you only double the final consonant if the final syllable is stressed. What does that even mean? It’s the syllable pronounced with more emphasis than the other(s) in a word. (still no doubling with w, x or z) 

Example: 

visit – visiting (stress on first syllable) (arrows to show stress on each of the following 6 examples)

happen – happening (stress on first syllable) 

travel – traveling (stress on first syllable, but travelling with 2 Ls is common in British English, so you’ll see both spellings in print). 

prefer – preferring 

control – controlling 

commit – committing 

4. Base forms ending in -ie will swap these vowels for a -y + ing. 

Example: 

vie – vying 

5. Base forms ending in -c add -k + ing. 

Example: 

panic – panicking 

Part 2: Past Participles 

The past participle is easily the hardest one to learn because of all the exceptions. The regular ones end in -ed, but let’s not confuse them with the past simple form (V2) as it’s rather the V3 form we’re working on. Like present participles, they also can be a verb, an adjective or a noun. So, to form a regular past participle you simply add -ed to a base form. 

Example: 

look – looked (look-looked-looked) 

highlight – highlighted (highlight-highlighted-highlighted) 

project – projected (project-projected-projected) 

Again, you might have to tweak a few endings here and there even with regular forms. Some rules are a copy/paste of the present participle structure, so you’ll be familiar with a few of them: 

1. Remove the final e – when the base form ends in -e. (Or simply add -d) So, pretty much like the present participle

Example: 

vote – voted

tie – tied (so -ie endings are regular here)

juxtapose – juxtaposed 

2. Just like with the present participle, double the final consonant (bcdfghjklmnpqrstvwxz shown on screen) of a short base form ending with the CVC pattern, but not when it ends with w, x or z. 

Example: 

slap – slapped

bob – bobbed

slow – slowed

3. Once more, this is like with the present participle, when you have a base form with two syllables and a CVC ending, you only double the final consonant if the final syllable is stressed. (no doubling with w, x or z) 

Example: 

visit – visited (stress on first syllable) 

happen – happened (stress on first syllable) 

travel – traveled (stress on first syllable) 

prefer – preferred 

control – controlled

commit – committed 

4. Last time we copy/paste from the present participle, add -k for a base form ending in -c. 

Example:

panic – panicked 

5. Now, when a base form ends in -y we have to figure out what’s the previous letter. If you have a vowel (ay, ey, or oy) (no verbs end in -iy and only buy ends in -uy but it’s not a regular form), you follow the main rule +ed. 

Example: 

decay – decayed 

prey – preyed 

destroy – destroyed

But if you have a consonant + y at the end of your base form, bye bye ‘y’ and add -ied. 

Example: 

try – tried 

supply – supplied

horrify – horrified 

Let’s just cover a specific set of exceptions that are too often overlooked. Earlier we hinted at the fact that regular past participles are a copy/paste of the past simple (skip-skipped–skipped). We were simplifying because there’s a small set of past participles that don’t follow that rule. Their V2 form ends in -ed but not their past participle. Like other irregular verbs, you have to learn them by heart. 

Example: 

V1	V2	V3
show	showed	shown
swell	swelled	swollen
mow	mowed	mown
hang	hanged	hanged/hung

A little gruesome detail; hanged/hung as a past participle differ in meaning; ‘hanged’ refers to the execution method as in ‘Back in the day criminals were hanged for serious crimes.’ and ‘hung’ refers to suspending things as in ‘I’ve hung your picture on my wall.’. Sorry for that, anyhow, check the table and see how the V3s don’t follow the -ed form of V2s

There are MANY more irregular past participles, we will address them in Part 4 in a couple of minutes, but first…

Part 3: Perfect Participles

A quick word on the least known participle; the perfect participle. You’ll be pleased to know its structure is rather simple since we’ve already covered past participles. So, to form it you need two words; an auxiliary ‘having’ and a past participle (V3). ‘having’ is a present participle and it never changes while the following verb, the past participle is the word carrying the action. 

Example: 

finish – having finished 

see – having seen 

catch – having caught 

Part 4: Irregular Forms

Now, on to irregular forms of past participles (V3). While it’s important to memorize these V3 forms, we’ll also show you how to categorize most irregular verbs based on their ending patterns. This simplifies the learning process and provides a handy guide when you come across a new verb. We’ll show V1, V2 & V3 forms but remember that our focus is on the last column, V3!

First, verbs that don’t change. Some verbs have the same form for all V1, V2 and V3 forms, they’re all one syllable words. 

V1	V2	V3
cost	cost	cost
cut	cut	cut
hit	hit	hit
hurt	hurt	hurt
let	let	let
put	put	put
read	read*	read*
shut	shut	shut

You’ve probably noticed that ‘read’ is a bit different, same spelling but different pronunciation. V2 & V3 sound just like the color red. 

Second, some irregular verbs follow the pattern -i, -a & -u. Let’s look at the chart: 

V1  -i	V2  -a	V3  -u
begin	began	begun
drink	drank	drunk
ring	rang	rung
sing	sang	sung
swing	swung	swung
swim	swam	swum

Pretty neat that some V1 verbs (base form) with an ‘i’, simply switch the ‘i’ for a ‘u’ when forming a V3. 

Third, more irregular participles follow the pattern -ow, -ew & -own. Let’s see: 

V1  -ow	V2  -ew	V3  -own
blow	blew	blown
fly	flew	flown
grow	grew	grown
know	knew	known
throw	threw	thrown

Fourth, some verbs follow the same -aught or -ought endings in V2 and V3. 

V1	V2  -aught / -ought	V3  -aught / -ought
bring	brought	brought
buy	bought	bought
catch	caught	caught
fight	fought	fought
teach	taught	taught
think	thought	thought

Here the caveat is you have to already know the past simple form, but it’s doable 🙂 

Fifth, some verbs follow the pattern -eed, -ed & -ed. Note that even though we see an -ed ending, it’s not a regular form (base form + ed). Again V2s and V3s are the same. 

V1  -eed	V2  -ed	V3  -ed
bleed	bled	bled
breed	bred	bred
feed	fed	fed
flee	fled	fled
lead	led	led

Sixth, other verbs follow the pattern -d, -t & -t. Once more, V2 & V3 are identical. 

V1  -d	V2  -t	V3  -t
build	built	built
lend	lent	lent
send	sent	sent
spend	spent	spent

Seventh, we’re going to go on a bit of a stretch, but many past simple forms (V2) ending in -t have the same past participle form (V3). 

V1	V2  -t	V3  -t
burn	burnt	burnt
feel	felt	felt
get	got	got
keep	kept	kept
leave	left	left
light	lit	lit
lose	lost	lost
mean	meant	meant
shoot	shot	shot
sit	sat	sat
sleep	slept	slept
sweep	swept	swept

Eighth, many unique past participles, meaning that the V2 and V3 forms aren’t alike, end in -en. 

See if you can identify the base form of the following past participles (V1 & V2 are shown a second or two after the past participle is given). 

bite – bit – bitten

break – broke – broken 

choose – chose – chosen 

drive – drove – driven 

eat – ate – eaten 

fall – fell – fallen 

give – gave – given

forget – forgot – forgotten 

freeze – froze – frozen 

hide – hid – hidden 

ride – rid – ridden 

rise – rose – risen 

shake – shook – shaken

speak – spoke – spoken 

steal – stole – stolen 

take – took – taken

wake – woke – woken 

write – wrote – written 

Unfortunately, we haven’t covered every single irregular past participle, but we’ve made a significant dent in that mountain! Well done! There are many more, but if you add the most frequent verbs you’ll have solid fundamentals. So, keep in mind the following ten: 

be – was/were – been 

do – did – done

find – found – found 

have – had – had

come – came – come 

go – went – gone 

make – made – made

say – said – said 

tell – told – told 

win – won – won 

If you have watched until this part, congrats you’ve won! 😀 

Wrap up

Host: So, there you have it, all 3 forms of participles! Having seen this video, you can now master participles, even the odd past forms. Feel free to share in the comments below more irregular forms we have forgotten to include to our list. Hopefully, this has been helpful. A link to some free material to practice by yourselves can be found in the description below. Keep practicing, and you’ll get the hang of it. Thank you for watching. Until next time!