Verbs have four principal parts that are used to show
all the tenses.
The tense of a verb expresses the time of the action or
state of being.
The four principal tenses are demonstrated below.
|
Infinitive (Base Form) |
Present Participle |
Past |
Past Participle |
|
walk |
(is) walking | walked | (have) walked |
| eat | (is) eating | ate | (have) eaten |
The present participle and the past participle are often used with helping verbs. Do not use a helping verb before the infinitive or past tense form.
A regular verb forms its past and past participle by adding -ed or -d to the base form.