principal parts of a verb

The three forms of a verb: base form (look, see), past tense form (looked, saw), and past participle (looked, seen). From the base form we derive the -s form (looks, sees) and the -ing participle (looking, seeing). See also:

• Irregular Verbs
• Principal Parts of Irregular Verbs: Arise to Grow
• Principal Parts of Irregular Verbs: Hang to Sink
• Principal Parts of Irregular Verbs: Sit to Write

Examples and Observations:

• "I came, I saw, I conquered."
  (Julius Caesar)



• "Alone or with helpers, the principal parts of verbs carry a sense of time along with the action or act of being that they express:
  
  Primary Tenses
  • PRESENT: Today, I call.
  • PAST: Yesterday, I called.
  • FUTURE: Tomorrow, I will call.
  Perfect Tenses
  • PRESENT PERFECT: Before now, I have called.
    
  • PAST PERFECT: In the past, I had called.
  • FUTURE PERFECT: By some future date, I will have called.
  
  Why are the perfect tenses called 'perfect'? Anything perfect is complete, and the perfect tenses stress an action at its completion."
  (Patricia Osborn, How Grammar Works: A Self-Teaching Guide. John Wiley & Sons, 1989)



• "You have done the labor; maintain it--keep it. If men choose to serve you, go with them; but as you have made up your organization upon principle, stand by it; for, as surely as God reigns over you, and has inspired your mind, and given you a sense of propriety, and continues to give you hope, so surely will you still cling to these ideas, and you will at last come back after your wanderings, merely to do your work over again."
  (Abraham Lincoln)



• "Women must try to do things as men have tried. When they fail their failure must be but a challenge to others."
  (Amelia Earhart)



• "Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try again. Fail again. Fail better."
  (Samuel Beckett)