Participles

Don't let the term "participle" scare you. Even if you don't know what participles are, you use them all the time. For most verbs, the participle is identical to the past tense. Consider the verb "to jump":

• Present tense: Jones jumps
• Past tense: Jones jumped
• Future tense: Jones will jump
• Participle: jumped (as in Jones has jumped, Jones had jumped, or the Jonses have jumped)

Be aware, though, that some verbs are "irregular," meaning there's little or no similarity among their tenses and participles. The verb "to go" is a good example:

• Present tense: Jones goes
• Past tense: Jones went
• Future tense: Jones will go
• Participle: gone (as in Jones has gone, Jones had gone, or the Jonses have gone)

If you aren't sure about a verb's participle, look the verb up in a dictionary. Good dictionaries will give you the spelling of the verb's participle.