A past participle is a special form of a verb that describes something that has already happened or been completed. In English, past participles usually end in -ed, like walked, jumped, or finished. However, many common verbs have irregular past participles: eaten, gone, broken, written, and seen are all past participles.

You use past participles in two main ways. First, they combine with helping verbs like has, have, or had to show completed actions: “I have finished my homework” or “She had already eaten lunch.” Second, they work as adjectives to describe nouns: “the broken window,” “a well-written essay,” or “the frozen lake.”

Understanding past participles helps you recognize perfect tenses when you're reading and use them correctly when you're writing. When you say “I have seen that movie three times,” seen is the past participle that works with have to show you completed the action of watching it.

A past participle differs from the simple past tense. You might say “I ate breakfast” (simple past) or “I have eaten breakfast” (using the past participle with a helping verb).