English Grammar Step by Step

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a  The verb be has two forms in the simple past tense: I, he, she, it→was; you, we, they→were. For further information, see unit unit 6, part 1, section 2.

b  The past participle of get is got in British English, but gotten in American English.

   An exception to this rule is get:

d  Burn, dream, dwell, kneel, lean, leap, learn, smell, spell, spill and spoil can be regular or irregular. In British English, we usually prefer the irregular form (burnt, dreamt, and so forth). Americans use the regular ones, that is to say, the ones with -ed. As we have seen above, a verb such as misspell should be treated as spell, that is, Americans would say misspelled; but British people, misspelt.

   They are also pronounced differently:

e  Abide, cost, hang, heave, knit, shine, speed, and a few other verbs, can be regular or irregular, according to the sense we use them. Bid has two forms; each of them with different meanings. If you are in doubt about which form to use, look the verb up in a dictionary.

g  The infinitive of the verb read is pronounced /ri:d/; the simple past and the past participle, /red/.

h  Note that the past participle of bear in be born: He was born in 1920, that is, He was brought into the world in 1920.

i  Modal verbs are not included in this list because they are defective, that is, they have not all the forms. For instance, we may say I can play football (present ability), or I could play football (past ability); but we may not say I have could play football since I was a child; we have to say I have been able to play football since I was a child. For further information about these verbs, see unit 22.

1  In British English, the simple past and the past participle is usually lit. Lighted is used before nouns: a lighted cigarette.

2  Especially in British English.