Verb forms
Base form
/splɪt/
Past Simple
Past Participle
Example sentences
Base form · split
- We always split the bill between us.
Past Simple · split
- Lightning split the old oak tree in half.
- Did you split it before lunch?
- I split it as soon as I possibly could.
- We split it together earlier this week.
Past Participle · split
- The band has split up after ten years.
- She has just split the very same thing.
- By the time we arrived, they had split everything.
- We have never split anything quite like it.
Key tenses
| Present Simple | Past Simple | Present Perfect |
|---|---|---|
I split he / she / it splits | I split | I have split |
| Present Continuous:I am splitting · he / she / it is splitting | ||
Grammar guide
The verb "split" belongs to the AAA group — all three principal parts are identical: "split" / "split" / "split". The spelling never changes, whether you use it in the present tense, past simple, or as a past participle in a perfect or passive construction.
Use "split" in the present to describe habits, facts, or scheduled events: "We split the figures every quarter." The same form serves as the past simple for completed actions: "They split the budget before noon." With auxiliary verbs it functions as the past participle: "She has already split her quota." Because all three forms look the same, an auxiliary (have, has, had) or a past-time marker (yesterday, last year) provides the tense signal.
AAA verbs are mostly short, high-frequency words ending in -t or -d, such as cost, cut, hit, hurt, let, put, set, and spread. Because they never inflect, you only need to learn one spelling. The difficulty is that context — an auxiliary verb, a time adverb, or the surrounding narrative — must indicate which tense is intended.
Quick-reference rule: when "split" follows have, has, or had, it is acting as a past participle ("she has split the price twice"); when it follows did not or appears in a question with did, it is the infinitive in a past-tense structure ("did they split it correctly?"); in all other uses it is most likely present simple or a base-form infinitive.
Quick quiz
Which sentence is correct?
Conjugation pattern
All three forms are identical — nothing to memorise beyond the base form.
Verbs with the same pattern