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All irregular verbsIrregular Verbs

split

/splɪt/

divide into parts

Verb forms

Base form

split

/splɪt/

Past Simple

split

Past Participle

split

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 SimplePast SimplePresent Perfect
I split
he / she / it splits
I splitI 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

split — split — split | English Irregular Verb · English Road