πŸ“š EASY BITESIZE English Grammar – V1, V2 and V3 πŸ€“

πŸ“š EASY BITESIZE English Grammar – V1, V2 and V3 πŸ€“

Have you seen verb forms referred to as V1, V2 and V3? Did you wonder what this meant?


A verb is a word used to describe;

an action (doing something)

The rabbit was jumping in the field.

state (feeling something)

John likes the new house.

occurrence (something happening).

My manager became the company director last week.


V1, V2 and V3 refer to the most common and basic forms for English verbs. They help us to express these actions in different tenses.

V1 is the infinitive form of a verb.

This one is the easiest one and is also known as the base form. It is simply the root form of the verb orΒ infinitiveΒ withoutΒ β€˜to’. Root forms of verbs are used as the base to create other forms, except in irregular verbs of course!!

V2 is the past simple form of a verb.

In regular verbs the past tense form is made by adding –ed (or just –d , even –t sometimes) after the root form of the verb. Again, this does not apply to irregular verbs!

The past tense of irregular verbs is created in all sorts of ways, that is what makes them irregular! You will have to learn those by memorising them I am afraid πŸ˜…

V3 is the participle form of a verb.

Participles by themselvesΒ do not show tense (a participle will not tell you if you are looking at an action in the past, present or future) and are used together with other forms of the verbs to make the tense of the action clearer, for example;

Tom has seen that movie before.
I don’t know if she had arrived at that time.
He thinks they would have preferred a table by the window.

The past participle is created the same way as the past simple tense, by adding –ed (or just –dΒ or even –t sometimes). Again, this does not apply toΒ irregular verbs! Those are tricky and memorising them is the only way I am afraid! πŸ˜…


Here you have an online game to help you memorise and practice the basic forms of English verbs!

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