Các dạng của động từ
Dạng nguyên
/spel/
Past Simple
Past Participle
Câu ví dụ
Dạng nguyên · spell
- Can you spell your surname for me, please?
Past Simple · spelt
- She spelt the word correctly on her first try.
- Did you spell it before lunch?
- I spelt it as soon as I possibly could.
- We spelt it together earlier this week.
Past Participle · spelt
- My name has been spelt wrong on the certificate.
- He has spelt it many times before.
- I have already spelt it more than once.
- She has just spelt the very same thing.
Thì chính
| Hiện tại đơn | Quá khứ đơn | Hiện tại hoàn thành |
|---|---|---|
I spell he / she / it spells | I spelt | I have spelt |
| Hiện tại tiếp diễn:I am spelling · he / she / it is spelling | ||
Hướng dẫn ngữ pháp
The verb "spell" follows the ABB pattern: the past simple and past participle share one form ("spelt"), while the base form ("spell") is different. ABB is the most common pattern among English irregular verbs — roughly half of all irregulars fall here, so mastering this group pays dividends across the whole language.
Use the past simple "spelt" to talk about a completed action or event at a definite moment in the past. It stands alone as the main verb — no auxiliary is needed. Common accompanying time expressions include yesterday, last week, ago, and when: "She spelt the whole report by herself." The action is seen as finished and anchored to a specific past time.
The past participle "spelt" always works together with an auxiliary verb. It appears in: (1) the present perfect with have/has — "I have spelt this several times before"; (2) the past perfect with had — "By the time we called, they had already spelt"; (3) passive voice — "The decision was spelt by the board." Never use "spelt" as a standalone past-tense verb without an auxiliary.
Memory tip: because "spelt" and "spelt" are the same, you only need to memorise one past form. Many ABB verbs follow recognisable sound shifts — a large group ends in -ought (bring→brought, buy→bought, catch→caught, fight→fought, seek→sought, teach→taught, think→thought), and another group shows a vowel shift plus -t (feel→felt, keep→kept, leave→left, mean→meant, sleep→slept). Identifying which sub-group "spell" belongs to can make the form easier to remember long-term.
Câu hỏi nhanh
Câu nào đúng?
Quy luật chia động từ
Quá khứ đơn và quá khứ phân từ có cùng một dạng.