Forms of ‘to do’ in all tenses

Table of contents – conjugation of ‘to do’

On this page you will find the following:

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

Particularities of the verb forms

1. ‘to do’ can be an auxiliary verb and lexical (main) verb.
2. When ‘to do’ appears as the main verb, it also requires ‘to do’ as an auxiliary verb in the present simple and past simple tense for negative and interrogative sentences (example: “I didn’t do” or “Does he do?”).

Forms of the irregular verb ‘to do’ in all tenses

The verb ‘to do’ is a very frequent and essential verb. It is often a cause for misunderstandings, so all its forms in all tenses are listed here. 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	do do does do do do	am doing are doing is doing are doing are doing are doing
Present perfect	1 I 2 you 3 he, she, it 1 we 2 you 3 they	have done have done has done have done have done have done	have been doing have been doing has been doing have been doing have been doing have been doing

• Information: Negations are formed with the auxiliary ‘to do’ and its forms ‘don’t/doesn’t’. The main verb ‘do’ in the infinitive follows.

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	did	was doing were doing was doing were doing were doing were doing
Past perfect	1 I 2 you 3 he, she, it 1 we 2 you 3 they	had done	had been doing

• Information: Negations in the past also require ‘didn’t’ as the auxiliary verb and the verb ‘do’ in its infinitive form.

Forms in the future

Infinitives and imperatives of ‘to do’

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, appears in different aspects: