by R. S. Karunaratne

Regular and irregular verbs

If a verb is regular, the simple past tense and past participle end in `-ed.?

Infinitive	Simple past tense	Past participle 
Clean 		cleaned 		cleaned 
Finish 		finished 		finished 
Use 		used 			used 
Paint 		painted 		painted 
Stop 		stopped 		stopped 
Carry 		carried 		carried 
Love 		loved			loved 
Marry 		married 		married 
Cook 		cooked 			cooked 
Kick 		kicked 			kicked 

We use the past participle to make the perfect tenses.

Present perfect tense
She has cleaned the room.
We have finished the job.
He has painted the walls.
Mother has cooked our meals.
They have used chemicals to make paint.

Past perfect tense

She had cleaned the room.
We had finished the job.
He had painted the walls.
Mother had cooked our meals.
They had used chemicals to make paint.

We use the past participle to make the passive forms or Passive Voice.

The room has been cleaned.
The walls have been painted.
The job has been done.
Our meals have been cooked.
Chemicals have been used to make paint.

With some irregular verbs, the infinitive, simple past and past participle remain the same.

Infinitive 	Past simple 	Past participle 
Hit 		hit 		hit 
Put 		put 		put 
Shut		shut		shut 
Cut 		cut		cut 

With other irregular verbs, the past simple is the same as the past participle.

Infinitive 	Past simple Past participle 
Tell		 told		 told 
Sell		 sold	 	sold 

With certain irregular verbs, all the three forms are different.

Infinitive 	Past simple 	Past participle 
Wake 		woke 		woken 
Drive		drove 		driven 
Swim 		swam		swum 

Some verbs can be either regular or irregular.

Infinitive 	Simple past 	Simple past
		 regular 	irregular 
Burn 		burned		 burnt 
Dream 		dreamed 	dreamt 
Lean 		leaned 		leant 
Learn 		learned 	learnt 
Smell 		smelled 	smelt 
Spell 		spelled 	spelt 
Spill 		spilled 	spilt 
Spoil 		spoiled 	spoilt 

[ Activity]

Supply the missing verb form in the following list of irregular verbs. Check your answers with the key.

Infinitive Simple past tense Past participle

1. Beat beat ..............
2. Become ............ become
3. Begin began ..............
4. Bend ............ bent
5. Bet bet ..............
6. Bite ............ bitten
7. Blow blew ..............
8. Break ............ broken
9. Bring brought ..............
10. Broadcast ............ broadcast
11. Build ............ built
12. Burst burst ..............
13. Buy ............ bought
14. Catch caught ..............
15. Choose ............ chosen
16. Come came ..............
17. Cost ............ cost
18. Creep crept ..............
19. Cut ............ cut
20. Deal dealt ..............
21. Dig ............ dug
22. Do did ..............
23. Draw ............ drawn
24. Drink drank ..............
25. Drive ............ driven

Key:

1.beaten 2. became 3. begun 4. bent 5. bet 6. bit 7. blown 8. broke 9. brought 10. broadcast 11. built 12. burst 13. bought 14. caught 15. chose 16. come 17. cost 18. crept 19. cut 20. dealt 21. dug 22. done 23. drew 24. drunk 25. drove

Starters:

How to use `be? verbs

`Am, is? and `are? are `be? verbs. They are used only in the present tense.

I am a teacher.
He is a carpenter.
She is a typist.
It is a tree.

We are students.
They are boys.
You are innocent.

In conversation and informal writing, we use contractions. A contraction is a form of a word or combination of words which is often used instead of the full form in spoken and informal English.

I?m in the class.
He?s busy.
You?re free to go home now.
It?s given free.
We?re from Jaffna.
They?re leaving for London.

To make questions with ?be? verbs, we put the verb before the subject.

Statement: I am late.
Question: Am I late?
Statement: He is a graduate.
Question: Is he a graduate?
Statement: She is a teacher.
Question: Is she a teacher?
Statement: It is raining.
Question: Is it raining?
Statement: We are writing.
Question: Are we writing?
Statement: The principal is coming.
Question: Is the principal coming?
Statement: You are painting the wall.
Question: Are you painting the wall?
Statement: Your books are on the table.
Question: Are your books on the table?

[Question words]

`Who, what, where, why, how? and `when? are question words. You can use them with `am, is? and `are.?

[Who]

Who am I?
Who are you?
Who is she?
Who are they?
Who are we?

[What]

What am I to do now?
What is he doing?
What is she sewing?
What is Piyal writing?
What are they cooking?
What are you looking at?
What are we doing here?

[Where]

Where am I?
Where are you going?
Where is he working?
Where are they living?
Where are we going to stay?

[Why]

Why am I here?
Why is he absent?
Why are they late?
Why are you silent?
Why are we leaving now?

[How]

How am I to know his address?
How is she coping with the problem?
How are they keeping?
How are we going to do this?
How are you?

[When]

When am I to get the results?
When are we to meet him?
When are you coming?
When is he leaving?
When are they coming?

To make negative sentences with `be? verbs, we put `not? after `am, is? and `are.?
I am not coming.
They are not helpful.
We are not happy.
You are not busy.

We can make contractions with ?n?t.?
He isn?t coming today.
They aren?t here now.
We aren?t happy here.
You aren?t busy.

Note: We cannot contract `am not?.

We use ?be? verbs with the following words.
I am hungry.
She is thirsty.
You are right.
It is hot.
You are wrong.
I?m afraid.
We are interested in music.
Emma is ten years old.
They are in their twenties.
What size is your shirt?
How old are you?

[Activity]

Fill in the blanks with ?am, is? and ?are.? Check your answers with the key.

1. You ......... always late.
2. My sister ......... a dancer.
3. Mary and John ........... in Canada.
4. I .......... very happy today.
5. I think you ........... hungry.
6. My house .......... very big.
7. My name ....... Anton.
8. ....... Raman an Indian?
9. Who .......... that man?
10. Where ........... Cyril and Abraham?

Key: 1. are 2. is 3. are 4. am 5. are 6. is 7. is 8. Is 9. is 10. are

Form adjectives from nouns

Words often come in families. You can expand your vocabulary by becoming familiar with these word families. In the following quiz we give 25 nouns in column ?A.? Fill in column ?B? with the relevant adjectives and check your answers with the key.

Column A Column B

1. Week ............
2. Weight ............
3. Welcome ............
4. West ............
5. White ............
6. Whole ............
7. Width ............
8. Wild ............
9. Willingness ............
10. Win ............

11. Winter ............
12. Wire ............
13. Woman ............
14. Wonder ............
15. Wood ............
16. Wool ............
17. Word ............
18. Work ............
19. World ............
20. Worry ............
21. Worth ............
22. Writing ............
23. Wrong ............
24. Year ............
25. Youth ............

Key:

1. weekly 2. weighty 3. welcome 4. western 5. white 6. whole 7. wide 8. wild 9. willing 10. winning 11. wintry 12. wiry 13. womanly 14. wonderful 15. wooden 16. woollen 17. wordy 18. workable 19. worldly 20. worried 21. worthy 22. written 23. wrongful 24. yearly 25. young

Concluded