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What is the past tense of the verb 'Eat'?
A. Eaten
B. Ate
C. Eated
D. Eating
Correct Answer Is Option = Ate
Notes / Explanation
The past tense of the verb eat is ate, and this is an example of what is known in English grammar as an irregular verb, an understanding of which is essential for using the language correctly and for performing well in competitive examinations. In English, verbs change their form to show the time of an action, and the past tense is the form used to describe an action that has already happened. Most verbs form their past tense in a regular way by adding a standard ending to the base form of the verb, so that the verb walk becomes walked and the verb play becomes played. However, a large number of common verbs do not follow this regular pattern, and these are called irregular verbs, because their past tense forms are made in special ways that must be learnt individually. The verb eat is one of these irregular verbs, and its past tense is ate, which is formed by a change in the vowel rather than by adding the usual ending. In addition to the simple past tense form ate, the verb eat also has another form known as the past participle, which is eaten, and this form is used together with helping verbs in certain constructions, as when one says that something has been eaten. It is important to use the correct form in the correct place, saying for example that a person ate a meal yesterday, using the simple past tense, but that the meal has been eaten, using the past participle. Many other common English verbs are irregular in the same way, changing their vowels or taking special forms in the past tense, such as the verb go, which becomes went, the verb see, which becomes saw, and the verb give, which becomes gave. Because these irregular forms do not follow the regular rule, they cannot be worked out by simply adding the usual ending, and learners must memorise them. A common mistake is to apply the regular pattern and produce an incorrect form such as eated instead of ate, and avoiding such errors is an important part of speaking and writing English correctly. For PPSC and other competitive examinations, the key points to remember are that the past tense of eat is ate, that this is an irregular verb formed by a change in the vowel, that its past participle is eaten, and that irregular verbs must be learnt individually because they do not follow the regular pattern.
