There are three main uses for past participles in English:

1. Perfect Tenses - I have broken my arm.

2. Adjectives: My window is broken.

3. The Passive Voice: My window was broken by that boy with the rock.

Don't confuse the past participle with the present participle or continuous form: breaking

Understanding how the past participle works and remembering how to conjugate irregular verbs will improve your English.

Regular verbs are easy to remember. Just add "ed"

work / worked / worked

Remember that the past tense and the past participle for regular verbs are the same: worked / worked

Irregular verbs must be remembered. See the table below. Click here for a printer friendly verstion.