Verb Forms and Why They Matter

Did you know verb form mistakes are one of the most common reasons students lose marks in English?

Whether it’s composition, comprehension, editing, or synthesis, a single slip in verb form can cost you. That’s why mastering the five verb forms is so important!

Here’s what goes wrong when we confuse verb forms:

• He has went to school already → He has gone to school already.
• Did you saw my handphone? I think I’ve misplaced it! → Did you see my handphone?
• I am proud of having ran the race → I am proud of having run the race.

So, how do you improve? Let’s start by understanding verb forms (and the mistakes we made).

But before you carry on reading, you might want to download this article for future reference as it is quite long! Also, the answers to the quiz (at the end of the article) is revealed in this downloadable pdf.

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What are Verb Forms?

Every English verb has five different forms, each with specific functions. The forms are:

Note: Verb forms are not the same as tenses. Think of verb forms as Lego pieces and tenses as the final structure you create with them.

Tenses show you when an action occurred. Did it happen in the past? Is it happening now? To create tenses, we combine verb forms with helping words like “has”, “had”, “will”, etc.

For example, the present participle “running” can:

• Build the present continuous tense “am running” (notice the helping word?)
• Be an adjective (“running water”) or
• Appear in a participial phrase (“Running quickly, she caught the bus”).

Same verb form, but completely different grammatical functions! Now, let’s examine each verb form individually and learn its specific uses.

Base Form

The base form is your verb in its simplest state. It is used:
1. After the “to” in a “to-infinitive”
2. After “do” and “did”
3. After modal verbs
4. For verbs of perception

1. To-Infinitive

• The base form frequently appears after “to”:
• I want to buy those Pokémon cards.
• She plans to study medicine at university.
• We decided to watch a movie together.

Watch out for tricky scenarios: some expressions that end with “to” actually need the -ing form, not the base form.
E.g., “I look forward to meeting you” (not “to meet”) or “I’m used to waking up early” (not “to wake”). With enough practice and reading, you’ll get the hang of it!

2. After “Do” and “Did”

When you form questions or statements using “do”, “did,” or “does”, the main verb always takes the base form.

• Does Steven really understand this Maths problem?
• Do not interrupt me!
• Did she attend the morning assembly?

In these sentences, it’s the “do/ does/ did” that shows the tense, not the main verb. This means you should never write “Did you went to school?” The word “did” already tells us it’s past tense, so the main verb stays in base form: “Did you go to school?”

3. Modal Verbs

Modal verbs like can, could, will, would, shall, should, must, may, and might always pair with the base form.

• You can solve this equation easily.
• Students should refrain from running in the canteen.
• You must watch the news!
• We will open the presents tomorrow.

When we use the modal verb “will” and a base form, this is actually the simple future tense.

4. Verbs of Perception

After verbs like see, hear, and smell, we use the base form to show complete actions:

• I saw the man cross the road safely.
• We heard the burglar tiptoe across the room.

When we say “I saw the man cross the road”, it means we witnessed the entire event from start to finish.

But what if we get distracted and we don’t see him crossing from one side to another? Well, we use another verb form for that. Stick around to find out!

Third Person Singular Form

The third person singular form is used for referring to singular subjects (he/ she/ it) in the simple present tense. To form the third person singular verb form, simply add “s” or “es” to the base form:

• The MRT arrives (arrive → arrives) every few minutes.
• My elder sister religiously watches (watch → watches) K-dramas.
• The furniture looks old.

In some cases of words ending with an “y”, it changes to “-ies” e.g.

• Cry → cries
• Apply → applies

As you can see, this verb form is pretty straightforward. So is the next one!

Past Form

The past form makes the simple past tense. For regular verbs, we add “-ed” or “-ied”.

• I visited (visit → visited) Marina Bay Sands last weekend.
• The children spilled (spill → spilled) food all over the table.
• The rats scurried (scurry → scurried) across the floor.

However, for irregular verbs, you’ll need to know the unique forms. These are a few:

• go → went
• swim → swam
• cut → cut
• fly → flew

Pretty straightforward right? Well, now it’s time to explore the many, many ways we can use the present participle. Buckle up!

Present Participle

To form the present participle, we simply add an -ing to the base form:

• drink → drinking
• summarise → summarising (remove the “e” and add an “ing”)
• hum → humming (double the final consonant before adding “ing”)

In this section, we explore how the present participle form is used:

1. To build continuous tenses
2. As participle phrases
3. As adjectives
4. As gerunds
5. With verbs of perception

1. Continuous Tenses

All the continuous tenses in English require the present participle.

Notice how the present participle stays the same, but the helping verbs change to create different tenses? This perfectly illustrates why verb forms and tenses are different concepts.

2. Participle Phrases

Participle phrases add more description to our sentences by giving us more information about the subject. They can be used at the start, middle, or end of a sentence.

• Running quickly, she managed to catch the bus.
• We sat in class, listening carefully to the teacher.
• The coach, noticing my confusion, explained the strategy again.

3. Adjectives

The present participle can also describe a noun directly, making it an adjective in some sentences.

• What a boring lecture! (describes the lecture)
• Singapore’s fascinating attractions are a tourist magnet. (describes the attractions)

4. Gerunds

The present participle can also act as a noun in the form of gerunds, meaning it can be the subject or the object of a sentence.

• Cycling burns so many calories! (subject)
• I enjoy reading comics. (object)

5. Verbs of Perception

Remember how the base form shows complete actions (e.g., “saw the man cross”?) The present participle shows actions in progress:

• I saw the man crossing the road.

Here, we only saw him while he was in the middle of the action. Maybe we didn’t see him start, or we looked away before he finished.

• We heard him playing the guitar late at night.

We heard him while he was in the middle of playing but we didn’t necessarily hear the entire practice session.  

For an in-depth explanation on present participles and how they’re used, check out our article on present participles.

Past Participle

The past participle, or the fifth verb form, can look quite similar to the past form. In fact, for regular verbs, the past participle and past forms are identical!

However, just like we saw earlier, irregular verbs don’t follow this rule:

The verb “to be” is the most irregular of them all; it has 8 forms!

Confusing the past and the past participle is one of the most common mistakes students make, but with more practice, you’ll soon get the hang of it!

The past participle can be used:

1. To form perfect tenses
2. As participle phrases
3. As adjectives
4. To form passive voice

1. Perfect Tenses

2. Participle Phrases

Just like present participles, past participles can form descriptive phrases which come at the start, middle and end of sentences:

• Built in 1887, the Raffles Hotel is an important landmark.
• The bird’s wing, broken and bruised, was tended to carefully by the vet.
• She sat by the window, lost in her own thoughts.

3. Adjectives

Like the present participle, the past participle can also be adjectives describing a noun.

• The completed model of the Singapore skyline looks impressive.
• Your swollen fingers resemble sausages!
• I drink coffee from my chipped mug.

4. Passive Voice

In active voice, the subject does the action e.g., I shelve the library books. In passive voice, the subject receives the action e.g., The library books are shelved by me.

Notice how “shelved” (the past participle) is used after a helping verb (“are”) to form the passive. Students are frequently tested on the passive voice, especially in the Synthesis and Transformation section, so it’s important you know how to form tenses in passive voice.

The passive voice is formed by: be + past participle. We change the “be” verb depending on the tense we need.

Quick Tip: When you change from active to passive, always check two things:

• The correct form of “be” (is, are, was, were, will be, has been, etc.)
• The correct past participle of the main verb.

For an in-depth explanation on this fifth verb form, check out our article on past participles.

And now, let’s see how much you understand about verb forms!

Quiz Time!

You can download the answers to this quiz, along with the pdf copy of this whole article, by clicking the button below:

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