Double and alternative forms of <i>Past simple</i> and <i>Past participle </i>of some English verbs: description and teaching methods
Some irregular English verbs display double forms of Past Simple and Past Participle. Sometimes the situation is reversed: a regular verb hasan alternative irregular Past Participle form. Also there are pairs of seeminglyvery similar verbs (homonyms or homographs) that, although coinciding, oralmost coinciding, in the form of infinitive, have completely different secondand third forms. In the first part the article lists the above-mentioned verbs ofthe highest frequency and categorizes them into general groups on the basisof similar linguistic features. There are five such groups. The first group includes the verbs that have a “classic” irregular form, such as dreamed-dreamt . The second group lists the verbs that are homonymous to irregular verbs inthe infinitive form, yet are regular by nature, such as to ring-ringed-ringed . The third group describes the verbs whose infinitive looks (or sounds) verysimilar to certain irregular verbs, which, however, have nothing to do withthem, such as to singe-singed-singed . The fourth group includes the regularverbs whose infinitive coincides with the Past Participle form of some irregular verbs, such as to bound-bounded-bounded . And finally, the fifth group iscomposed of verbs which (regular or irregular) display an alternative formof Past Simple or Past Participle that has a meaning very different from theregular one, being, as it were, two separate semantic units, such as to bear bore-born/borne . The second part of the article describes steps towardsteaching, recognition, translation and usage of these forms with a view todifferentiating their meanings or shades of meanings.