Forms of Verb

Forms of Verb is not officially listed in the LAT syllabus, but past papers have repeatedly included questions on it, so it remains a high-value, low-effort topic: the rules are simple and the same handful of forms are tested again and again.

WHAT IS A VERB?

A verb is an action word that shows what someone or something is doing. Verbs change form depending on WHEN the action happens and WHO/WHAT is performing it.

THE SIX FORMS OF A VERB

1) BASE FORM (INFINITIVE)

The simplest form of the verb, with no changes — the form you would find as a dictionary entry, usually paired with 'to'.

Examples: to walk, to eat, to read.

Sentence: "I like to play soccer."

2) PRESENT TENSE

Shows actions happening now or regularly/habitually. Takes '-s' or '-es' when the subject is he/she/it (third person singular).

Sentence: "She plays the piano every day." "He eats vegetables for dinner."

3) PAST TENSE

Shows actions that have already happened. Regular verbs add '-ed'; irregular verbs change form unpredictably and must be memorized.

Sentence: "We walked to school yesterday." (regular) "She read a book last night." (irregular — 'read' does not change spelling but changes pronunciation)

4) FUTURE TENSE

Shows actions that will happen later. Formed with helping verbs 'will' or 'shall' + base form.

Sentence: "Tomorrow, we will play at the park." "She shall visit her grandmother next week."

5) PRESENT PARTICIPLE

Formed by adding '-ing' to the base form. Shows an action happening now or continuously; used with helping verbs like 'is/am/are' (continuous tenses).

Sentence: "They are playing outside." "She is reading a book."

6) PAST PARTICIPLE

Used with helping verbs 'has', 'have', or 'had' to form perfect tenses. Regular verbs end in '-ed'; irregular verbs may end in '-en' or take a completely different, irregular form.

Sentence: "She has eaten lunch already." (irregular: eat → ate → eaten) "They have written letters to their friends." (irregular: write → wrote → written)

GERUNDS — A SPECIAL USE OF '-ING'

A gerund also ends in '-ing', but unlike the present participle, it functions as a NOUN in the sentence — it can act as a subject, object, or complement.

• As Subject: "Swimming is her favourite hobby." — 'swimming' is the subject of the sentence.
• As Object: "She enjoys reading books." — 'reading' is the object of the verb 'enjoys'.

LAT TRAP: The present participle ('-ing' used as part of a verb, e.g., "She IS READING a book") and the gerund ('-ing' used as a noun, e.g., "READING is fun") look identical but play completely different grammatical roles — this distinction is a favorite examiner trick.

REGULAR vs IRREGULAR VERBS — THE THREE PRINCIPAL PARTS (V1-V2-V3)

Every verb has three key forms used across tenses: V1 (base/present), V2 (simple past), V3 (past participle).

• Regular verbs: V2 and V3 are the same, formed by adding '-ed'. e.g., walk → walked → walked; play → played → played.
• Irregular verbs: V2 and/or V3 change unpredictably and must be memorized individually. Some commonly tested irregular verbs:

go → went → gone

eat → ate → eaten

write → wrote → written

read → read → read (spelling unchanged, pronunciation changes)

see → saw → seen

do → did → done

give → gave → given

take → took → taken

break → broke → broken

speak → spoke → spoken

begin → began → begun

come → came → come

run → ran → run

know → knew → known

drive → drove → driven

QUICK-REVISION SUMMARY

• Base form: to + verb (no change) — "to walk"
• Present: verb / verb+s(es) — "walks"
• Past: verb+ed or irregular — "walked" / "wrote"
• Future: will/shall + base form — "will walk"
• Present participle: verb+ing (with is/am/are) — "is walking"
• Past participle: verb+ed/en or irregular (with has/have/had) — "has walked" / "has written"
• Gerund: verb+ing used as a NOUN (subject/object/complement) — "Walking is good exercise."

WHY IT MATTERS: LAT verb-form questions typically ask a student to pick the correct V1/V2/V3 form to complete a sentence, or to identify whether an '-ing' word is functioning as a gerund or a present participle. Memorizing the irregular verb list above and the "helping verb + participle" pattern (has/have/had + V3 for perfect tenses; is/am/are + V-ing for continuous tenses) resolves almost all such questions.