Using the Past Participle

All verbs have four principal parts: the base form, the past form, the present participle and the past participle. We use the past participle in the following ways:

Participial phrases

Irritated by the inefficiency, the boss yelled at the workers.

Based on the results of the tests, we changed our plan.

Raised in Vermont, I was used to cold winters.

Participial adjectives

The bored students sat quietly through the lecture.

The teacher was determined to finish the chapter.

I was pleased to see that the boss liked my idea.

With the perfect tenses

I've stayed at the hotel several times.

Peter hadn't earned enough money to buy a car yet.

With the passive voice

The store was closed by the time we got there.

Electrical charge is carried by subatomic particles.

I've been fired and I don't know what I'm going to do.

When sodium and chlorine meet, an electron is exchanged and each atom ends up with a filled electron shell. (filled is a participial adjective)

Forming the Past Participle

The past participle of regular verbs is formed by adding -d or -ed to the base form of the verb.

Base form	-d or -ed	Past participle
close	d	closed
ionize	d	ionized
Fill	ed	filled
Stay	ed	stayed
Earn	ed	earned

The past participle of irregular verbs must be memorized. Here are a few common irregular verbs in the four forms:

Base form	Past form	Present participle	Past participle
know	knew	knowing	known
eat	ate	eating	eaten
become	became	becoming	become
fly	flew	flying	flown
leave	left	leaving	left
fall	fell	falling	fallen
feel	felt	feeling	felt
make	made	making	made
drive	drove	driving	driven

Practice #1

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