This is the difference between the past tense and the past participle. Let us see another example of the verb ‘drink’ in the following sentences:

In other words, the form ‘sung’ is the past participle form of the verb ‘sing’. In the third sentence, past perfect tense is used and the verb in the past perfect tense ‘sung’ is used. In the second sentence, past tense is used and the verb in the past tense form ‘sang’ is used. In the first sentence, present tense is used and the verb in the present tense form is used. This perfect tense could be present perfect, past perfect or future perfect. On the other hand, past participle is a grammatical form of a verb when a perfect tense is used. The action of looking took place some time ago.

In the second sentence, you can see that the action of looking was over when somebody said ‘He looked at her friend’. In the first sentence, the action of giving is completed when somebody said ‘I gave a book to Francis’. Past tense indicates the completed nature of an action. In both the sentences given above, simple past tense is used. Past is sometimes referred to as simple past as in the sentences given below: That is why it is necessary to study the past and past participle forms of the verbs by heart. However, for irregular verbs the past and past participle of the verbs differ. For regular verbs, both past and the past participle are the same. In English, the verb has three forms present, past, and the past participle. What they both have in common is that both of them affect the verb.

Past is used for one particular purpose while the past participle is used for another. Past and Past participle are two grammatical forms that show difference between them in usage.

Give past tense