Verbs Easily Confused

Verbs that are easily confused

Infinitive / Simple Past / Past Participle

fall / fell / fallen
feel / felt / felt
fill / filled / filled
find / found / found
found / founded / founded
flow / flowed / flowed
fly / flew / flown
lay / laid / laid
lie / lay / lain
lie / lied / lied
leave / left / left
live / lived / lived
raise / raised / raised
rise / rose / risen
strike / struck / struck
stroke / stroked / stroked
wind / wound / wound
wound / wounded / wounded

Notes

find – get back something
found – start up an organization or institution
flow (of a liquid) – move
fly – move in the air
lay – put down flat
lie – be down
lie – say things that are not true
raise – put up
rise – go/get up
strike – hit
stroke – pass the hand gently over
wind – turn, tighten a spring etc.
wound – injure in a battle

Verbs easily confused

Fall and fell

Fall is an irregular intransitive verb. Its past tense and past participle forms are: fell and fallen.

Fall / fell / fallen

Be careful; otherwise you will fall off the ladder.

• He fell off the ladder.

Fell is a regular transitive verb. It means ‘chop down a tree’. The past and past participle forms of fell are: felled and felled.

Fell / felled / felled

• The woodcutter felled the tree.
• He was felled by an assassin’s bullet. (= He was killed by an assassin’s bullet.)

Find and found

Find means ‘get back something lost’. Find is an irregular verb. Its past and past participle forms are: found and found.

Find / found / found

• I searched everywhere but couldn’t find my keys.
• His body was found several miles from his home.

Found means ‘start up an organization or institution’. It is a regular verb and forms its past and past participle forms by adding –ed to the base form.

Found / founded / founded

• The college was founded in 1916.

Flow and fly

Flow (of a liquid) = move
Flow is a regular verb and forms its past and past participle forms by adding –ed to the base form.

Flow / flowed / flowed

• Blood flowed from the wound.
• Sap flowed from the gash in the tree.

Fly means ‘move in the air’. Its past and past participle forms are flew and flown.

Fly / flew / flown

• Birds fly in the sky.

Raise and rise

Raise means ‘put up’, ‘make something larger or greater’ and similar ideas.

Raise is regular. Its past and past participle forms are: raised and raised.

Raise / raised / raised

• She raised her hand.
• They have raised the fuel prices again.

Raise can also mean ‘bring up’. With this meaning it is usually used in the passive.

• He was raised by his grandmother. (= He was brought up by his grandmother.)

Rise means ‘get up’ or ‘stand up’.

Past and past participle forms of rise are: rose and risen.

Rise / rose / risen

• He rose from his seat.
• The sun rises in the east.

Strike and stroke

Strike means ‘hit’.
Past and past participle forms of strike are: struck and struck.

Strike / struck / struck

• The car struck a tree.
• The illness can strike at any age.

Stroke means ‘pass the hand gently over’.

Stroke is a regular verb and form the past and past participle forms by adding –ed to the base form.

Wind and wound

Wind means ‘turn, tighten a spring etc’.

Past and participle forms are: wound and wound

• The river winds through the valley.

Wound means ‘injure in a battle’. Wound is a regular verb and forms its past and past participle forms by adding –ed to the base form.

Wound / wounded / wounded

• He was wounded in the battle.