Verbs

An English verb only has a few different forms:

the infinitive
the past form
the past participle

Examples = the verbs listen & speak

listen - speak
listened - spoke
listened - spoken

We make combinations with these forms, and they are called tenses.
Such a tense adds extra meaning to the verb:
- Helen listens to the radio (she often does)
- Helen is listening to the radio (right now, just look)
- Helen listened to the radio (not now, she's finished)

Many verbs are regular. They follow certain rules, and that means it is easy to know their different forms. When you know the rule, you know their forms.
The rule itself is very simple: past = past participle = infinitive + ED		Examples: listen -> listened (past) - listened (past part.) walk -> walked (past) - walked (past part.)

Unfortunately there are a number of irregular verbs, that don't follow this simple rule. Unfortunately there is only 1 way to know their forms: memorize them. Unfortunately many of the irregular verbs are very common, and so used a lot in everyday conversation.
A few examples: - to speak - spoke - spoken - to hear - heard - heard - to write - wrote - written - to come - came - come - to go - went - gone

Here is a list of irregular verbs and their forms.
If you click the link, you can see the list.
If you right click it, you can download the list to your computer.