What “same past and past participle” means
Every English verb has principal parts: the base form (bring), the simple past (brought), and the past participle (brought). With regular verbs, the past and the past participle both end in -ed, so they are always identical. With irregular verbs, the two forms can differ (sing, sang, sung) or match (bring, brought, brought).
This page focuses on the large group of irregular verbs where the simple past and the past participle are the same word. Once you know the past form of these verbs, you already know the participle.
The simple past is used on its own: She brought a cake. The past participle needs a helping verb such as have, has, had, or be: She has brought a cake. The cake was brought by her.
Quick reference table
The verbs below share one form for the past and the past participle. They are grouped by pattern, which makes them easier to remember.
| Pattern | Base form | Past and past participle |
|---|---|---|
| -ought / -aught | bring | brought |
| buy | bought | |
| think | thought | |
| seek | sought | |
| fight | fought | |
| catch | caught | |
| teach | taught | |
| -t ending | build | built |
| send | sent | |
| spend | spent | |
| lend | lent | |
| bend | bent | |
| lose | lost | |
| feel | felt | |
| keep | kept | |
| sleep | slept | |
| leave | left | |
| mean | meant | |
| -d ending | pay | paid |
| say | said | |
| lay | laid | |
| hear | heard | |
| sell | sold | |
| tell | told | |
| hold | held | |
| find | found | |
| Vowel change | sit | sat |
| stand | stood | |
| win | won | |
| get | got (also gotten in US English as participle) | |
| make | made | |
| have | had | |
| meet | met | |
| read | read (pronounced “red”) | |
| lead | led | |
| feed | fed |
Example sentences
- I bought a new bag last week. (simple past)
- I have bought a new bag. (present perfect)
- They built a house by the river. (simple past)
- The house was built in the 1990s. (passive)
- She kept the letter for years. (simple past)
- He had kept the secret until then. (past perfect)
- We sent the parcel on Monday. (simple past)
- The parcel has been sent. (present perfect passive)
- I thought about it all night. (simple past)
- Nobody had thought of that before. (past perfect)
Verbs where the base form and past participle match
The target phrase for this topic is sometimes written as verbs with “the same present and past participle”. That points to a different small group: verbs whose base form is the same as the past participle, even though the simple past differs.
| Base form | Simple past | Past participle |
|---|---|---|
| come | came | come |
| become | became | become |
| run | ran | run |
| overcome | overcame | overcome |
She has come a long way. He has become a teacher. They have run every morning this week.
Verbs where all three forms are identical
Some verbs do not change at all. They are easy to spell but can be hard to place in time, so context matters.
| Base form | Simple past | Past participle |
|---|---|---|
| cut | cut | cut |
| put | put | put |
| set | set | set |
| hit | hit | hit |
| hurt | hurt | hurt |
| let | let | let |
| shut | shut | shut |
| cost | cost | cost |
I cut the paper yesterday. I have cut the paper. The tense is shown by time words and helping verbs, not by the verb form.
Verbs with two accepted forms
Some verbs have both a regular and an irregular form. Both are correct, though usage can vary between British and American English.
- learn: learned or learnt
- burn: burned or burnt
- dream: dreamed or dreamt
- spell: spelled or spelt
- smell: smelled or smelt (see our article on smelled or smelt)
If you are unsure, the -ed form is generally the safer choice in American English, while British English often accepts either.
Is “change” irregular?
No. Change is a regular verb. Its simple past is changed and its past participle is also changed: The weather changed. The plan has changed. Because the two forms match, it can look like an irregular verb, but it simply follows the regular -ed rule.
Past participle, present participle, and gerund
- The past participle is the form used after have or be: has gone, was broken.
- The present participle ends in -ing and is used in continuous tenses or as an adjective: She is reading. A running tap.
- A gerund also ends in -ing, but it works as a noun: Reading is relaxing.
The form is the same for the present participle and the gerund. The difference is the job the word does in the sentence.
The past perfect tense
The past perfect uses had plus the past participle. It shows that one past action happened before another past action.
- By the time we arrived, they had left.
- I had spent all my money before the end of the trip.
- She realized she had lost her keys.
Because the past participle of many irregular verbs matches the simple past, the past perfect of verbs like leave, spend, and lose is easy to form once you know the past.
Tips for learning the patterns
- Learn verbs in groups, such as brought, bought, thought, fought.
- Say the three forms aloud together: keep, kept, kept.
- Practise with short sentences using both the simple past and a perfect tense.
- Check a dictionary when a verb has two accepted forms.
- If you are teaching these verbs, follow the stages in our irregular verbs lesson plan.
Tense slips such as he go to bed in a past-tense sentence are common test items; see identifying sentence errors exercises.
Frequently asked questions
What are irregular verbs? Irregular verbs are verbs that do not form the past and past participle by adding -ed. Their forms have to be learned individually or by pattern.
Do all irregular verbs have the same past and past participle? No. Many do, like buy, bought, bought, but others differ, like write, wrote, written.
What is the past tense and past participle of change? Both are changed, because change is a regular verb.
How can I tell whether to use the past or the participle? If there is a helping verb such as have, has, had, or a form of be, use the past participle. If there is no helping verb, use the simple past.