Verb Tenses: Verb Tense: Nothing a Little Prozac Wouldn't Cure

Verb Tense: Nothing a Little Prozac Wouldn't Cure

Like people, verbs show the passage of time by changing form. Over the years, some of us get a little thick around the middle while the rest of us get a bit more blond. The tense of a verb shows its time. Verbs add a final -ed or -d to the simple form, use an auxiliary verb, or change their form completely to show that time flies.

There are six verb tenses in English. Each of the six tenses has two forms: basic and progressive (also known as “perfect”). The following table shows the six forms for the verb to talk.

I'm All Shook Up: Examples of the Six Verb Tenses

Tense	Basic Form	Progressive Form
Present	talk	am talking
Past	talked	was talking
Future	will talk	will be talking
Present perfect	have talked	have been talking
Past perfect	had talked	had been talking
Future perfect	will have talked	will have been talking

I Feel Your Pain: Principal Parts of Verbs

As the preceding table indicates, you form verb tense from principal parts and helping verbs. Every English verb has four main parts, as the following table shows.

Principal Verb Parts

Present	Present Participle	Past	Past Participle
talk	talking	talked	talked
play	playing	played	played

• The present is used to form the present tense (I talk) and the future (I will talk). Notice that you have to use the helping verb will to show the future tense.
• The present participle forms all six of the progressive forms (I am talking, I was talking, and so on).
• The past forms only one tense—you guessed it, the past (I talked).
• The past participle forms the last three tenses: the present perfect (I have talked), the past perfect (I had talked), and the future perfect (I will have talked). To form the past participle, start with a helping verb such as is, are, was, or has been. Then add the principal part of the verb.

A Class Act: Forming Past Tenses

English verbs are traditionally divided into two classes, according to the ways they form their past tense and past participles.

1. Some verbs are regular. This means they form the past tense and past participle by adding -d, -ed, or -t to the present form but don't change their vowel, as in walk, walked, walked.
2. Irregular verbs don't form the past by adding -ed or -d. The principal parts of irregular verbs are formed in many different ways. This could be why they need bran.
   • Sometimes, irregular verbs change tense without changing their endings. Instead, they usually travel in time by changing a vowel and adding -n or -en, as in begin, began, begun.
   • Other times, they change their vowel and add -d or -t, as in lose, lost, lost.
   • Or they may not change at all, such as set, set, set, and put, put, put.

The following chart shows the most common irregular verbs.

Present Tense	Past Tense	Past Participle
arise	arose	arisen
bear	bore	born or borne
beat	beat	beaten
become	became	become
begin	began	begun
bend	bent	bent
bite	bit	bitten
blow	blew	blown
break	broke	broken
bring	brought	brought
burst	burst	burst
catch	caught	caught
choose	chose	chosen
come	came	come
creep	crept	crept
dig	dug	dug
dive	dived or dove	dived
do	did	done
draw	drew	drawn
drink	drank	drunk
drive	drove	driven
eat	ate	eaten
fall	fell	fallen
fight	fought	fought
fly	flew	flown
forget	forgot	forgotten
forgive	forgave	forgiven
freeze	froze	frozen
get	got	gotten or got
give	gave	given
go	went	gone
grow	grew	grown
hang	hung	hung
hang (execute)	hanged	hanged
hide	hid	hidden
hold	held	held
hurt	hurt	hurt
kneel	knelt	knelt
know	knew	known
lay	laid	laid
lead	led	led
lie (horizontal)	lay	lain
lie (falsehood)	lied	lied
lose	lost	lost
prove	proved	proved or proven
ride	rode	ridden
ring	rang	rung
rise	rose	risen
run	ran	run
say	said	said
see	saw	seen
shake	shook	shaken
show	showed	showed or shown
shrink	shrank	shrunk
sing	sang	sung
sink	sank	sunk
speak	spoke	spoken
spring	sprang	sprung
steal	stole	stolen
strive	strove	striven
swear	swore	sworn
swim	swam	swum
take	took	taken
teach	taught	taught
tear	tore	torn
throw	threw	thrown
wake	woke or waked	woken or waked
wear	wore	worn
write	wrote	written

Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep

You can argue whether men are from Mars and women are from Venus, but everyone agrees that lie and lay are definitely from another planet. These two verbs may be the most commonly confused pair of words in English. Here's the problem: They're just plain evil.

Seriously, lie is an irregular verb that conjugates lie, lay, lain. Lay, in contrast, is a regular verb that conjugates lay, laid, laid. Because lay is both the present tense of to lay and the past tense of lie, many speakers and writers use lay when they mean lie.

To add to the confusion, lie and lay have different meanings. Lie means “to repose”; lay means “to put.” It's enough to make you learn Esperanto.

Try these hints to sort out lie/lay:

• Lie means “to repose”; lay means “to put.”
• Lie is an intransitive verb. That means that it never takes a direct object. For example: “If you are tired, you should lie down.”
• Lay is a transitive verb. That means that lay always takes a direct object. For example: “Lay the book on the table, please.”

Study the following table to further clarify lie and lay. Or have it tattooed in your palm for ready reference.

The Various Forms of Lie and Lay

Verb	Meaning	Examples
lie	to repose flat	Present tense: Fido lies down.
		Past tense: Fido lay down.
		Future tense: Fido will lie down.
		Perfect tense: Fido has lain down.
lay	to put down	Present tense: Lay your cards down.
		Past tense: He laid the cards down.
		Future tense: He will lay his cards down.
		Perfect tense: He has laid his cards down.

Party Pooper: Test Time

I know you need this quiz like Sinatra needs singing lessons, but humor me. Circle the correct form of each verb in parentheses. Then identify the verb as regular or irregular.