Participles and Perfect Verb Tenses

Participles and Perfect Verb Tenses Participles and Perfect Verb Tenses Participles and Perfect Verb Tenses By Maeve Maddox Some comments I received on the post about the forms of the irregular verb drink indicate that not everyone is clear as to how participles are used to form verb tenses that use the helping verbs has, have and had. Heres a review. Participles are verb forms, but they are incomplete. In order to function as real verbs, they must be used with helping verbs. English has two participles: the present participle and the past participle. The present participle always ends in -ing: jumping, skiing, writing, drinking, sighing, etc. The past participle usually ends in -ed, as in called, climbed, interrogated, and studied. Many verbs, however, have past participles that do not end in -ed. Some, for example, end in -en: write/wrote/(have) written bite/bit/(have) bitten take/took/(have) taken Some end in -t: mean/meant/(have) meant creep/crept/(have) crept sleep/slept/(have) slept Many irregular verbs, like drink, have distinctive past participle forms: drink/drank/(have) drunk go/went/(have) gone am-is/was/(have) been slay/slew/(have) slain Participles have numerous uses, but right now Im just looking at how they are used to form the following verb tenses: present perfect past perfect present perfect progressive past perfect progressive Present Perfect The present perfect tense is used to describe a) an action that happened at an indefinite time in the past b) an action that that began in the past and continues in the present The helping verbs used with the past participle to form the present perfect tense are has and have: The House of Windsor has ruled England since 1917. My sister has tried every kind of shampoo on the market. We have written to them numerous times without receiving an answer. Past Perfect Tense The past perfect tense is used to describe an action that took place in the past before another past action. The helping verb used with the past participle to form the past perfect is had: Before reinforcements arrived, the enemy had captured most of the men. Present Perfect Progressive The present perfect progressive describes an action that began in the past, continues in the present, and may continue into the future. The present participle is used with the helping verbs has been and have been to form the present perfect progressive: I have been thinking about going to France one more time. Charlie has been trying to make the team for two years now. We have been sitting in the park for hours. The teachers have been meeting after school to plan the new schedules. Past Perfect Progressive The past perfect progressive describes a past, ongoing action that was completed before some other past action. The present participle is used with the helping verbs had been to form the past perfect progressive: When the accident occurred, she had been talking on her cell phone. Want to improve your English in five minutes a day? Get a subscription and start receiving our writing tips and exercises daily! Keep learning! Browse the Grammar category, check our popular posts, or choose a related post below:15 Terms for Those Who Tell the Future60 Synonyms for â€Å"Trip†What’s the Best Way to Refer to a Romantic Partner?