Forms of Helping Verbs
 |
| Main verbs are also called
"lexical verbs". |
|
Main verbs—except the verb "be"—have only 4, 5 or
6 forms. "Be" has 9 forms.
| |
|
V1 |
V2 |
V3 |
|
|
| |
infinitive |
base |
past simple |
past participle |
present participle |
present simple, 3rd person singular
|
| regular |
(to) work |
work |
worked |
worked |
working |
works |
| irregular |
(to) sing
(to) make
(to) cut |
sing
make
cut |
sang
made
cut |
sung
made
cut |
singing
making
cutting |
sings
makes
cuts |
(to) do*
(to) have* |
do
have |
did
had |
done
had |
doing
having |
does
has |
| infinitive |
base |
past simple |
past participle |
present participle |
present simple |
| (to) be* |
be |
was, were |
been |
being |
am, are, is |
In the above examples:
- to cut
has 4 forms: to cut, cut, cutting, cuts
- to work
has 5 forms: to work, work, worked, working,
works
- to sing
has 6 forms: to sing, sing, sang, sung, singing,
sings
- to be
has 9 forms: to be, be, was, were, been,
being, am, is, are
|
|
| The infinitive can be with
or without to. For example,
to sing and sing are both
infinitives. We often call the infinitive
without to the "bare infinitive". |
|
At school, students usually learn by heart the
base, past simple and past participle
(sometimes called V1, V2, V3, meaning Verb 1, Verb 2,
Verb 3) for the irregular verbs. They may spend many
hours chanting: sing, sang, sung; go, went, gone; have,
had, had; etc. They do not learn these for the regular
verbs because the past simple and past participle are
always the same: they are formed by adding "-ed" to
the base. They do not learn the past participle
and 3rd person singular present simple by heart—for
another very simple reason: they never change. The present
participle is always made by adding "-ing" to the base,
and the 3rd person singular present simple is always
made by adding "s" to the base (though there are some
variations in spelling).
* Note that "do", "have" and "be" also function as
helping or auxiliary verbs, with exactly the same
forms (except that as helping verbs they are never in
infinitive form).
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