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Identifying the past tense and past participle of a verb

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by ndurai2006 » Sun Aug 15, 2010 11:10 am
Hi,

Is there a general way to identify and differentiate the past tense and past participle of a verb? Say for e.g. the verb is "Begin" which one is past participle ? "began" or "begun" ? Plz clarify

Thanks,
Durai
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Source: — Sentence Correction |

by Tani » Sun Aug 15, 2010 4:28 pm
As you undoubtedly know by now - English verbs can be nasty. "Begin" is one of the irregular verbs. Its form is "begin-began-begun" as in "I usually begin work at 8:00." ; "I began work yesterday at 7:30"; "I had begun to write my marketing plan before the fire alarm went off." Unfortunately this gets even more complicated when you consider "British English" versus "American English". For example, in the US, the simple past of "learn" is "learned", but the British say "learnt". To Americans "learnt" sounds uneducated.

If you google "English irregular verbs" you will find several good lists of the most common ones. Be sure you get an American-based list.

Good luck!
Tani Wolff
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