Irregular Verbs Part III

"Rang" and "sang" are the past simple; "rung" and "sung" are the past participles, used after have, has or had. Say "The phone rang" and "She sang at the concert", but "The phone has rung twice" and "She has sung in that choir for years". Spring and shrink follow the same pattern: "spring - sprang - sprung", "shrink - shrank - shrunk". So "The door sprang open", not "The door sprung open", in careful English.

The past tense of sting and swing is "stung" and "swung", not "stang" or "swang", and the past participle is the same. Say "A bee stung me" and "He swung the bat". Stick, wring and dig work the same way: "stick - stuck - stuck", "wring - wrung - wrung", "dig - dug - dug". Unlike ring and sing, these verbs have no form with a.

Lay (put something down) is "lay - laid - laid", and lie (be in a flat position) is "lie - lay - lain". Say "She laid the book on the table" and "I lay on the sofa all afternoon", where lay is the past of lie. "The letter had lain unopened for weeks" uses the past participle of lie. Don't write "layed". Lie meaning "not tell the truth" is regular: "He lied to me."

Both are correct: "dived" is the standard past tense in British English, while "dove" is common in American and Canadian English. You can say "She dived into the pool" or, in American English, "She dove into the pool". For the past participle, "dived" is the safe choice everywhere: "He has dived off that cliff before." "Diven" is not a word.

Both "proved" and "proven" are correct past participles of prove, while the past simple is always "proved". You can say "The theory has proved correct" or "The theory has proven correct"; proven is especially common in American English. As an adjective before a noun, "proven" is the usual form: "a proven method". Don't use proven as the past simple: "He proved his point", not "He proven his point".