overcome

The verb "overcome" belongs to the rare ABA group: the base form and past participle are identical ("overcome" and "overcome"), while the past simple ("overcame") is the odd form out. Only a handful of common English verbs follow this pattern, which makes "overcome" easy to identify once you know the group.

Use the past simple "overcame" for a single completed action at a specific point in the past: "She overcame a personal best in last year's race." It stands alone as the main verb with no auxiliary required. Past-time markers — yesterday, last month, in 2019, an hour ago — accompany it naturally.

The past participle "overcome" — identical to the base form — always requires an auxiliary. It appears in: (1) present perfect constructions — "Have you ever overcome a marathon?"; (2) past perfect — "By the final lap, she had already overcome past three rivals"; (3) passive voice — "The route is overcome every spring." Because "overcome" looks exactly like the plain present tense, always check for an auxiliary verb (have, has, had, or a form of be) to determine the actual grammatical structure.

The ABA group is so small that it fits in one sentence: come–came–come, become–became–become, run–ran–run, and overcome–overcame–overcome. All four are closely related words built on the same roots. Once you know "overcome", the past participle comes free — the only form that requires separate memorisation is the irregular past simple "overcame".