The difference between the past tense and past participle

English lexical verbs can be classified as regular or irregular verbs. The regular verbs are verbs that the past tense and the past participle ends in -ed. For example: 

 

Present tense (plural) ......... kill

Present tense (singular) ..... kills

Continuous tense ................. killing

Past tense ............................... killed

Past participle ....................... killed

The question then arises: how is jumped (past tense) different from jumped (past participle)? It's simple! 

1. He killed the fat goat. (Past tense)

2. He killed the fat goat. (Past participle)

3. He is killing the fat goat. (Continuous tense)

3. He has killed the fat goat. (Past participle)

4. He had killed the fat goat. (Past participle)

Notice carefully that the auxiliary has/have/had will always precede the past participle. Simply expressed: always use has/have/had before the past participle verb. 

Someone may then ask. What of an instance like the following: 

The fat goat was killed. 

In the instance above, that is an instance of the use of passive verb. 

The difference between the past tense and past participle of irregular verbs are pretty obvious. 

Present tense (plural) ......... go

Present tense (singular) ..... goes

Continuous tense ................. going

Past tense ............................... went

Past participle ....................... gone

He went out. (Past tense)

He has gone out. (Past participle)

Have you found the posts helpful? 

The blogger, Olabanji O. Odurombi, can be contacted via WhatsApp, voice call or SMS on 08037699294.