The teacher came to the end of his rope. The teacher had come to the end of his rope.Notice the slightly different meaning (and spelling) when you add an auxiliary verb (have, had). Take a look at these verbs in your dictionary. They (irregulars) are shown in three forms: Present, Past, and Past Participle.
The student taught her teacher patience. The student had taught her teacher patience.
We all broke things we loved. We all have broken things we loved.
Was it you who shrank your jeans? Was it you who had shrunk your jeans?
I would not do such a thing. I would not have done such a thing.
Regular verbs look like this:
PRESENT PAST PAST PARTICIPLE
walk walked (have) walked
rake raked (have) raked
step stepped (have) stepped
Irregular verbs look like this:
go went (have) gone
break broke (have) broken
come came (have) come
teach taught (have) taught
And here’s a clue as to why this matters. The verb “fly” has many meanings. Only the one pertaining to baseball uses the regular “ed” form: John hit a fly ball; John flied out twice. BUT: A bird can fly; The bird flew.
I agree! There is no sense to it — at all. Which is one of the reasons for keeping a dictionary on hand at all times when you’re still catching on to these idiosyncrasies.
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