Past Participle in Question Phrases

In today’s post we will be learning all about the past participle in question phrases! If you use the phrase “Have you ever…” it is essential to put the following verb in the form of a past participle. Here is an example of the difference:

• Instead of saying:
  • Have you ever went to California before?
• Say:
  • Have you ever been to California before?

The past participle normally accompanies another verb in this case the word “have”. The past participle is typically referred to as the third form of the verb and can often be made by adding on these endings : ed, d, or t.

For example:

• Sleep : slept : slept
• Jump : jumped : jumped
• Wear: wore : worn
• Be : was/were : been

As you can see, sometimes the past participle is exactly the same as the regular past tense but other times things can be more difficult if the verb is irregular! For that reason, it will be useful to look specifically at a list of verbs that are irregular in the past participle so that you can begin to memorize them:

Here is a long list of irregular verbs: https://www.perfect-english-grammar.com/support-files/50_common_irregular_verbs_list.pdf

However below I have compiled a list of the top 10 most used irregular verbs where in the past participle is different from the regular past tense!

1. Be : was/were : been
2. Become: became: become
3. Drink: drank: drunk
4. Do : did: done
5. Eat: ate: eaten
6. Give: gave: given
7. Write: wrote: written
8. Wear: wore: worn
9. Speak: spoke: spoken
10. Sing: sang: sung

Let’s practice using some of these new irregular verbs!