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Principal Parts of Verbs
This lesson will concentrate on the principal parts of the verb and then we will focus on using the simple present and the present continuous forms.

Most grammar teachers talk about three principal parts of the verb...

Present	Past	Past Participle
ask	asked	asked

...but, I like to think of four principal parts of a verb:

Present	Past	Present Participle	Past Participle
ask	asked	asking	asked
need	needed	needing	needed
scrape	scraped	scraping	scraped
run	ran	running	run
give	gave	giving	given
go	went	going	gone

Spelling is a consideration when we talk about all these verb parts. Look at the chart above and think about this rule:

Double the final consonant when you add -ed or -ing to a verb that ends with one vowel followed by one consonant.

So, don't double the final consonant when you add -ing to need or ask, but double it when adding -ing to trap or run.

When a verb ends with an e, you must drop the e before adding -ing and you should only add a d for the regular past tense or past participle.

Drop the final e in give and scrape before adding the -ing and only add a -d when you make scrape a past tense verb.

Remember: ask, need, and scrape are regular verbs and run, give, and go are irregular verbs.
Regular verbs always have -ed as a past tense ending.
Irregular verbs have various (irregular) past tense endings.

Be careful not to overuse the present participle.

Use the present participle only with the progressive tenses and participial adjectives. Note the difference between the present tense and the present progressive tense.

	Present Tense		Present Progressive Tense
Example	Bob runs every morning before work.	Example	Bob is running to catch the bus.
Explanation	Use the present tense to indicate that something happens on a regular basis. The present tense is used for habitual actions.	Explanation	Use the present progressive tense to indicate that something is happening right now. The progressive tense is sometimes called the continuous tense because it describes something that is continuing.

Note: Certain verbs cannot be used in the present progressive tense. These are verbs that indicate conditions or states. These verbs don't express action, so they cannot be in the present progressive. They are called stative verbs.

Stative Verbs

Descriptions	Possession	Measurement	Senses	Emotions/         attitudes	Ideas
seem	have	weigh	feel	love/need	know
be	own	measure	hear	like/want	think
look like	possess	equal	see	care/prefer	believe
sound like	belong to	cost	taste	hate/dislike	recognize
involve	owe	amount to	smell	mind/value	remember
consist of	depend on		hurt	appreciate	understand
contain					mean

Some of these verbs have a non-stative meaning also.

Stative: I feel sad about your brother's problems.
                            The soup tastes too salty.
Non-stative: The doctor is feeling my arm to see if it is broken.
                                    David is tasting the soup. He doesn't want it to taste too salty.

Practice #1 Practice #2 Practice #3 List of Lessons

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