🕰️ Detailed Explanation of Choosing Between the Past Tense and Past Participle
When we talk about choosing between the past tense and the past participle, it helps to understand what each one means and how we use them, especially in Year 6 English lessons.
⏳ What is the Past Tense?
The past tense is a form of a verb that shows an action happened in the past and is now finished. You usually use the past tense when telling a story or talking about something that already happened.
Examples of past tense:
- I jumped over the puddle.
- She played football yesterday.
- They watched a movie last night.
Notice how the verbs have changed, mostly by adding -ed for regular verbs. This is the simple past tense.
🧩 What is the Past Participle?
The past participle is another form of the verb, but it is mainly used with helping verbs like “have,” “has,” or “had” to make perfect tenses, or sometimes with the verb “be” to form passive sentences. It can look the same as the past tense for regular verbs, but it is different for irregular verbs.
Examples of past participle:
- I have jumped over the puddle.
- She has played football.
- They had watched the movie before dinner.
For irregular verbs, the past participle can look different from the past tense:
- Past tense: He went to the shop.
- Past participle: He has gone home.
⚖️ How to Choose Between Past Tense and Past Participle?
- If you are telling what happened, use the past tense.
Correct: Yesterday, I finished my homework.
This tells when the homework was done. - If you are talking about something that happened before another time, or you use “have,” “has,” or “had,” use the past participle.
Correct: I have finished my homework already.
This shows the action is complete before now or another time.
❗ Common Confusions
- “I saw” vs “I have seen”
“I saw” means the action happened at a certain time in the past.
“I have seen” means the action happened at an unspecified time before now. - Regular vs Irregular Verbs
Regular verbs simply add -ed for both past tense and past participle (e.g., walked, walked).
Irregular verbs change differently (e.g., take – took (past tense) – taken (past participle)).
📚 Summary for Year 6 Learners
- Use the past tense for things that happened and finished at a specific time.
- Use the past participle with “have,” “has,” or “had” to show actions that are connected to now or another past time.
- Remember irregular verbs have special past tense and past participle forms.
By practising these rules and reading example sentences, you will get better at choosing when to use the past tense and when to use the past participle! 🚀
✍️ 20 Examination-Style Questions with Answers on Past Tense and Past Participle for Year 6
- Fill in the blank with the correct past tense or past participle form:
She has _____ (go) to the shop already.
Answer: gone - Choose the correct word:
They _____ (wrote / written) a lovely story yesterday.
Answer: wrote - Correct the sentence if needed:
He had took his books to school.
Answer: He had taken his books to school. - Fill in the blank:
We have _____ (see) that film before.
Answer: seen - Which is the correct past participle of “break”?
a) broke
b) broken
Answer: b) broken - Choose the correct past tense:
Last week, I _____ (run) five miles.
Answer: ran - Fill in the blank with past tense or past participle:
She has _____ (eat) all the cookies.
Answer: eaten - Sentence correction:
They have went to the park this morning.
Answer: They have gone to the park this morning. - Choose the right form to complete the sentence:
The window was _____ (shatter / shattered) by the storm.
Answer: shattered - Fill in the blank with the past participle:
He has _____ (make) a model airplane.
Answer: made - Select the correct form:
I _____ (drink / drank) a glass of water yesterday.
Answer: drank - Complete the sentence with the past participle:
She has _____ (write) three poems this week.
Answer: written - Fill in the blank with the past tense:
Yesterday, we _____ (find) a lost dog.
Answer: found - Correct the sentence if needed:
They have took the bus to school.
Answer: They have taken the bus to school. - Choose the correct form:
He _____ (broke / broken) his arm last year.
Answer: broke - Fill in the blank:
We have _____ (do) our homework already.
Answer: done - Select the correct word:
She _____ (fell / fallen) off her bike yesterday.
Answer: fell - Fill in with the past participle:
The cake was _____ (eat) by the children.
Answer: eaten - Choose the correct past tense or past participle:
They have _____ (choose / chose) the best team.
Answer: chosen - Sentence correction:
I had swum in the pool before it rained.
Answer: The sentence is correct as it is.
These questions include a mix of fill-in-the-blanks, multiple choice, and sentence correction, all aimed at helping Year 6 students practise choosing between the past tense and past participle forms, in line with the National Curriculum and Key Stage 2 standards. 📘✨
