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!

Past Participle Quiz

Try and conjugate the following verbs into the past participle.

Travelling | English Grammar Exercise (Simple Past Verbs and Comparatives)

We at Scrambled Eggs love to travel. Our teachers come from the USA and the UK and we live in Italy. In our spare time (when it will be possible again) we love to travel in Italy and abroad. It is always fantastic to see different places and meet the local people, try the local food, and enjoy finding out about new places. A quick look at Instagram will tell you that we are not the only ones!

But one side of travel that people do not often talk about is the journey itself! Is it better to take the train or the bus? Did you pack your suitcase well? How did you buy your tickets? This is just as important because without the journey we would not be able to visit these fantastic places.

So, we kindly invite you to try our quiz below to think about travelling and test your use of past verbs and comparatives… Enjoy!

Travelling | Simple Past and Comparatives Quiz

Choose the correct words to fill the gaps.