Verb Forms in English, Three Verb Form List V1, V2, V3

Verb Forms in English

Verb Forms: You already know that to describe the action of the subject we use verbs. As you are reading this article, you are doing an act of reading and to describe your action here the verb ‘read’ is used. In English Grammar, a verb can be modified into different forms to adjust the context of an action performed at a specific time. A verb form helps us in identifying that when the action is being performed by the subject that is either the action is performed at present or in the past or is going to be performed in the near future. In this article, we will discuss the different forms of verbs, their uses in a sentence, and their examples.

Verb Forms

When a verb appears in a sentence in a different or modified way to describe the specific time of the action performed by the subject, it is known as Verb Form. To understand tenses, it is important to learn Verb Forms. In English Grammar there are five types of verb forms but basically there are five forms- third-person singular, present participle, past, and past participle.

1. Present (Root) form of a verb
2. Simple Past form of a verb
3. Present Participle form of verb
4. Third -person singular Present form
5. Past Participle form of a verb

Five Forms of Verbs

There are three forms of verb namely Present, Past, and Past Participle. These forms of verb are commonly named as V1, V2, and V3. By modifying or adding different suffixes or prefixes to the base or root verb we make other different forms of verbs. The root verb is often used to represent the simple present tense. For example- Read, Write, Walk, Play, Run, Go

1. Present (Root) Form of a Verb

This type of verb form, that is root form of verb is the base form of the verb and is used originally without any change into any other form. Root verbs are the basic or original form verbs without any modification or changes. Different forms are formed from the root verbs.  In some cases, root verbs are used as simple present forms of verbs. This is commonly called as V1 forms of verb.

Examples of Present (Root ) form of verb:

• Nisha love watching movies with my friends. (Base form – love)
• Preeti finish my homework before 6 p.m. everyday.(Base form – finish)
• Chinky play really well. (Root verb – play)

2. Simple past form of a verb

The simple past form of the verb is a verb used to refer to or denote any action that took place in the past or the work that is already done. This form of the verb is also known as the ‘V2’ form of the verb. This form of verb is generally formed by adding (-ed)/(-d) at the end of the main or root verb.

Examples of Simple past form of a verb:

• When a root verb ends with ‘e’ then only (-d) is used to form the simple past form of the verb, otherwise (-ed) is used. For Example- Play- Played, Fill- Filled, Fix- Fixed, Skip- Skipped.
• There are some irregular forms of verbs that are being used in its root or base form of verbs to describe the action that took place in the past. For Example- Cut- Cut, Read-Read, Hurt- Hurt, Shut-Shut, Put-Put, etc.

Simple past forms of verbs can be difficult to determine for some irregular verbs that do not follow the general rule. They neither follow the rule of adding ‘ed’ or ‘d’ nor remain in their root form of verbs. Generally, these forms of verbs need to be remembered. Let’s look at some examples to understand it in a much better way: Sing- Sang, Buy – Bought, Loose – Lost, Think – Thought, Fly -Flew, Ring- Rang, Go – Went, Find – Found, etc.

3. Past participle form of a verb

The past participle form of a verb is also known as the ‘V3’ form of a verb. The past participle form of the verb may appear in the present, past, or future perfect tense.  Past Particles forms of verbs are also formed by adding ‘-ed’/ ‘-d’ just like simple past but past participles form of verbs always come with an auxiliary verb. As we discussed in the simple past about some irregular verb forms that do not follow the general rule, here in past participles there are also some irregular verbs that need to be remembered. Let’s understand with an example:

For Example-

“Mohan has taken his father to the hospital.” Here, the phrase “has taken” is in the past participle form, as opposed to the Simple past form of the verb took i.e “Mohan took his father to the hospital.”

4. Present Participle form of verb

he present participle verb form is created by adding -ing to the base form. It’s used in the past, present, and future progressive verb tenses. This is V4 form of verb.

Examples of Present Participle form of verb:

• When a verb ends with a vowel followed by a consonant, the last consonant of the word is doubled, and then the (-ing) is added. For example- Run- Running, Swim- Swimming, Cut- Cutting.
• When a verb ends with an ‘e’, then that last ‘e’ is removed, and the (-ing) is added. However, there are some verbs that retain the ‘e’ in the root form when converted to the present participle form of the verb. For example- Educate – Educating, Smile- Smiling, Bake- Baking.

5. Third -Person Singular Present Form

Third-person singular Present form is used to represent simple present tense. It is denoted by addition of -s or-es to the base form. This is V5 form of verb.

Examples of Third-Person singular Present form of verb:

• Rashmi plays badminton well ( Base form- Play, Third -Person Singular Present Form- Plays)
• Swati teaches English. (Base form- teach, Third -Person Singular Present Form- teaches)
• Usha loves to sing. ( Base form- love, Third -Person Singular Present Form- Loves)

Verb Forms List (A to Z)

Verb Forms that remain the same in all forms

As we know that verbs changes to describe the time of action of the subject by adding some suffix in its root verbs. But, some verbs are used in their main or base form. These verbs remain the same in the Simple Past and Past Participles form.

Irregular Verb Forms

Regular verbs are those verbs that follow the basic rules of the addition of the suffix and prefix. They are easily recognized and used in sentences accordingly. But Irregular verbs do not follow the basic rules. Any verbs that do not add -ed or -d to their past tense form is considered irregular verb. To use them in English Grammer, you must have to remember them.

Some Examples of Irregular Verb Forms

Some Examples of Verb Forms Used in Sentences

1. I am going to school.
2. They have been drawing for hours.
3. Mona loves pizza.
4. I bought a new phone today.
5. The books were stacked on the shelf.
6. I had forgiven him for his behavior.
7. Pawan was playing football yesterday.
8. He has rung the bell.
9. Why do you not come on time?
10. Gagan had lit candles all around the room.