All tenses in the active voice (irregular verb)

Table of contents – example conjugation

On this page you will find the following:

1. Verb forms in the tenses
   1. Present tense forms
   2. Past tense forms
   3. Future tense forms
2. Infinitives and imperatives

Active forms of the irregular verb ‘to eat’ in all tenses

The verb ‘to eat’ serves as an example of irregular verb forms in all tenses. The tables also highlight the particular forms that differ from the repeating ones. For clarification, the grammatical persons are presented as follows:

Forms in the present

Tense	Person and subject	Simple	Progressive/continuous
Present	1 I 2 you 3 he, she, it 1 we 2 you 3 they	eat eat eats eat eat eat	am eating are eating is eating are eating are eating are eating
Present perfect	1 I 2 you 3 he, she, it 1 we 2 you 3 they	have eaten have eaten has eaten have eaten have eaten have eaten	have been eating have been eating has been eating have been eating have been eating have been eating

• Information: Negations are formed with ‘don’t/doesn’t’ and the verb in the infinitive (here ‘eat’).

Forms in the past

Tense	Person and subject	Simple	Progressive/continuous
Past	1 I 2 you 3 he, she, it 1 we 2 you 3 they	ate	was eating were eating was eating were eating were eating were eating
Past perfect	1 I 2 you 3 he, she, it 1 we 2 you 3 they	had eaten	had been eating

• Information: Negations are formed with ‘didn’t’ and the verb in its infinitive form (here ‘eat’).

Forms in the future

Infinitives and imperatives of ‘to eat’

The imperative expresses commands and exists only in the 2nd person singular and plural, with its forms agreeing:

The infinitive is the base form and, like the participles, can appear in different aspects: