 1. Participles are formed from verbs. There are three types of Participles in English language: the Present Participle, the Past Participle and the Perfect Participle.
| Tense |
Active Voice |
Passive Voice |
| Present Participle |
writing |
being written |
| Past Participle |
- |
written |
| Perfect Participle |
having written |
having been written |
 2. Spelling rules for the formation of the Past Participle.
 The general rule is: base form of the verb + '-ed':
work - worked add - added
wash - washed allow - allowed
watch - watched consider - considered
paint - painted finish - finished
enjoy - enjoyed play - played
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 Note that there are a few exceptions:
- when the verb ends in a consonant + '-y' it changes to -i before '-ed':
- study - studied hurry - hurried
- apply - applied worry - worried
- try - tried marry - married
- cry - cried tidy - tidied
- busy - busied carry - carried
- when the verb ends in a vowel '-e' we add '-d' after it:
- live - lived dance - danced
- hope - hoped love - loved
- chase - chased smoke - smoked
- improve - improved confuse - confused
- move - moved phone - phoned
- care - cared shave - shaved
- when a one syllable verb ends in consonant + vowel + consonant we double the final consonant before '-ed':
- stop - stopped plan - planned
- drop - dropped ban - banned
- rob - robbed crop - cropped
- step - stepped split - splitted
- when the verb has more than one syllable, we double the final consonant before '-ed' only if the final syllable is stressed:
- permit - permitted admit - admitted
- prefer - preferred regret - regretted
- when the final syllable of the verb is not stressed, we do not double the final consonant before '-ed':
- descover - descovered remember - remembered
- visit - visited recover - recovered
- listen - listened develop - developed
- In British English the verbs that end in -l double the final consonant before '-ed' (whether the final syllable is stressed or not):
- travel - travelled cancel - cancelled
- when the verb ends in two consonants (-st-, -rt-, -ck-, -sk-, -rn-, -lk-) we do not double the final consonant before '-ed':
- post - posted trust - trusted
- start - started port - ported
- kick - kicked knock - knocked
- ask - asked mask - masked
- warn - warned turn - turned
- walk - walked talk - talked
- when the verb ends in two vowel letters before the final consonant we do not double it:
- boil - boiled exploit - exploited
- need - needed explain - explained
- shout - shouted found - founded
- want - wanted cook - cooked
3. The Past Participal can be also used as an ajective in front of a noun: a broken window, a handwritten letter, the stolen money, etc.
List of Irregular Verbs
Using Participles
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Past Participle