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:

Number	Person
Singular	1 I 2 you 3 he, she, it
Plural	1 we 2 you 3 they

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

Tense	Person and subject	Simple	Progressive/continuous
Future (will)	1 I 2 you 3 he, she, it 1 we 2 you 3 they	will eat	will be eating
Future (going to)	1 I 2 you 3 he, she, it 1 we 2 you 3 they	am going to eat are going to eat is going to eat are going to eat are going to eat are going to eat	am going to be eating are going to be eating is going to be eating are going to be eating are going to be eating are going to be eating
Future perfect	1 I 2 you 3 he, she, it 1 we 2 you 3 they	will have eaten	will have been eating

Infinitives and imperatives of ‘to eat’

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

Person and subject	Imperative (affirmative)	Imperative (negated)
2 you 2 you	eat eat	don’t eat don’t eat

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

Verb form (aspect)	Infinitive	Present participle	Past participle
Simple	to eat	eating	eaten
Progressive	to be eating	–	–
Perfect	to have eaten	having eaten (perfect participle)	–
Perfect progressive	to have been eating	having been eating	–