past participle

Definition from Wiktionary, a free dictionary

Contents 1 English 1.1 Noun 1.1.1 Usage notes 1.1.2 Derived terms 1.1.3 Translations

[edit] English

[edit] Noun

past participle (plural past participles)

1. (grammar) A participle indicating a completed action or state.

[edit] Usage notes

In English, the past participle of a regular verb ends in -ed, and has the same spelling of the past tense of that verb: sometimes the last consonant is doubled (stop → stopped); sometimes the last vowel is changed (deny → denied). Irregular verbs tend to end in -en (see Appendix:Irregular verbs).

• When combined with the auxilliary verb to have, a past participle forms the perfect tenses of a verb.

  to eat (ate): All the meal has been eaten.

  to ride (ridden): I could have ridden my bicycle if it had not rained.

  to strike (struck or stricken): In that fight, he has struck my stomach.

• When combined with the auxilliary verb to be, a past participle forms the passive voice of a verb.

  to construct (constructed): The new mall is finally constructed.

  to give (given): I was given a new book.

  to talk (talked): That problem was talked about yesterday.

  to throw (thrown): The ball was thrown by John.

  to write (written): Those letters were written last year.

• Past participles can also modify a noun.

  to require (required): Here are the documents required.

• Past participles may be used to modify a verb or sentence.

  to see (seen): Seen from this perspective, we should easily do the work.

[edit] Derived terms

• past participial

[edit] Translations