past participle

The past participle is one of the three forms you learn for each verb: go – went – gone. It comes after have in the present perfect and after be in the passive (made in Italy).

Regular verbs

For most verbs, the past participle is the same as the past simple: the verb + -ed.

The spelling rules are the same as for the past simple: live – lived, stop – stopped, study – studied.

Irregular verbs

Some verbs have a past participle of their own. Learn them in groups.

• The same three times: cut – cut – cut, put – put – put, let – let – let
• Past simple and past participle the same: buy – bought – bought, make – made – made, have – had – had, tell – told – told
• Three different forms: see – saw – seen, go – went – gone, write – wrote – written, eat – ate – eaten, take – took – taken, be – was/were – been
• Back to the first form: come – came – come, run – ran – run, become – became – become

Got and gotten

The past participle of get is got in British English and gotten in American English, except in have got.

Common mistakes

Learners often use the past simple form after have.

• × I have went. → I have gone.
• × She's ate already. → She's eaten already.
• × Have you saw it? → Have you seen it?
• × We have wrote to him. → We have written to him.