- [Voiceover] Hello grammarians! Broadly we're talking
about irregular verbs, but more specifically today
we're gonna talk about the -en ending, which is
why I'm calling this lecture taken for a ride, because
of this little -en thing. So we've spoken previously
about verbs that show their past tense or their past perfect or past participle forms by
changing their vowel sound, like the verb to sing, right? Present tense sing, past tense sang, past perfect aspect, had sung. So some of the words we're
going to be talking about today also have that vowel change, but what's different about them is that for the past-perfect
or past-participle form instead of -ed, it's -en. Let me explain. The verb to tear, right? In its present tense it's tear, I tear this piece of paper. (paper tearing) Past tense, I tore this piece of paper. And in the past perfect, it's I had torn. Ah, I probably shouldn't have done that, I had notes on that paper. Some verbs that fall into
the category of the -en past perfect have
regular-seeming past tenses. So for example, the word show. I show him the book,
she showed me the book, we had shown them the book. So we're still getting this n sound. Same thing goes with prove. Present tense, prove. Past tense, proved. Past perfect, proven. Same deal for the verb to bite. I bite, it bit, I was bitten, or it had bitten. The present tense of to ride is ride, to past is rode, and the past perfect, or past participle, is
had ridden, or was ridden. As in, the horse was ridden all around the countryside. The verb to eat works this way. Present tense eat, past tense ate, past participle or past
perfect is had eaten or was eaten. So I had eaten earlier, or the cookie was eaten by Stew. The verb speak undergoes that vowel shift, so it goes speak in the present tense, spoke in the past tense
and past participle or past perfect is spoken. Even really words like to
be and to go obey this rule. The -en rule. It just doesn't necessarily look like it. So to be, the past of that is either was or were. But the past perfect form of that is been, which is just be with an
-en ending on it, right? Go is the same way. So even though go has a
really weird past form, I go, she went, the past perfect or past participle form is gone. And sure, the letters
aren't in the right order, but the sound is there. Gone. Irregular verbs are weird, there's not denying it. But we can break them down,
and they can be understood. And you can learn anything. David out.