ELI5: Explain Like I'm 5

Principal parts

Principal parts are like the big building blocks that make up a word. Think of them like the ingredients for a cake. Just like you need eggs, sugar, flour, and butter to make a cake, you need principal parts to make a word.

There are four principal parts for verbs in English. These are like the four steps to making a cake. They are:

1. The base form: This is the verb form you find in the dictionary. It's like the flour in our cake example. Just as you need flour to make a cake, you need the base form to make a verb.

2. The past simple form: This is the form of the verb that tells you something happened in the past. It's like the eggs in our cake example. It's an important part of making the verb.

3. The past participle form: This is the form of the verb you use when you want to describe something that happened in the past and still has an effect in the present. It's like the butter in our cake example. Even though you can't see it in the final product, it's a very important ingredient.

4. The present participle form: This is the form of the verb that ends in -ing. It's like the sugar in our cake example. It's not as essential as the other three principal parts, but it makes the verb sweeter and more interesting.

So just like you need all four ingredients to make a cake, you need all four principal parts to make a verb. Together, they help you use verbs correctly and create sentences that make sense.