What are verb forms?

English verbs change ‘form’ depending on how they are used.  For example, the
verb ‘to watch‘ can be watch, watched, watches or watching, depending on
the tense of the sentence.
I watch TV. present simple form / verb 1

I watched TV yesterday. past simple form / verb 2

I’ve watched this TV show before. past participle form / verb 3

third person singular present simple

He watches TV.
form / verb 1 (s)

I’m watching TV. present participle form / verb -ing

Because ‘to watch‘ is a regular verb, the past simple (verb 2) and past participle
(verb 3) are the same.  They are both simply the present simple form with -ed.
Most verbs in English are regular, and follow this easy rule.  So if you want to
use a verb in the past tense, you can usually just add -ed to the end, and your
sentence will be correct.

However, the rule doesn’t cover all verbs.  For example, if we use the verb ‘to
write‘, there’s a big difference.
I write to my friend. present simple form / verb 1

third person singular present simple

He writes to me.
form / verb 1 (s)

I wrote to him last week. past simple form / verb 2

I’ve written to him twice this year. past participle form / verb 3

I’m writing a third letter to him now. present participle form / verb -ing
Here, verb 2 and verb 3 don’t simply add -ed, but are new words.  That’s
because ‘to write’ is an irregular verb.  Irregular verbs change form in different
ways to regular verbs.
See below for a list of common irregular verbs.