Question

What is the past tense and the past participle for the word “break”? I mean, if you use the breaks on your car. Do you say, “I breaked quickly”?

Answer 1

Hint: The question is with reference to the forms of verbs in different tenses in English grammar. When used on a car, it is not ‘break’. Rather it is ‘brake’. Break is an irregular verb.

Complete answer:
Verbs are action words. They tell us what the subject is doing. Every verb has a present or the base tense, a past tense and a past participle tense, which are called as the first, second and third forms of the verb. Verbs are of two types; regular verbs and irregular verbs.

Present (First Form)	Past (Second Form)	Past Participle (Third Form)
Play	Played	Played
Added	Added	Added
Danced	Danced	Danced
Move	Moved	Moved
Wait	Waited	Waited

In a regular verb, the past tense or the second form is derived from the first form. It is done by adding –ed at the end of the first form of the verb and the second form is also the same as the third form. For e.g.
In an irregular verb, the second and third forms are not derived directly from the first form, but it is transformed into two new words for the past and past participle forms respectively.

Present (First Form)	Past (Second Form)	Past Participle (Third Form)
Swim	Swam	Swum
Sing	Sang	Sung
Wear	Wore	Worn
Eat	Ate	Eaten
Choose	Chose	Chosen

The word ‘break’ as given in the question, means to ‘destroy or separate into pieces’. It also means to ‘interrupt’ Break is an irregular verb. Hence, its 1st, 2nd and 3rd forms are break, broke and broken.
When we talk about slowing down the speed of a vehicle, we use the word ‘brake’. This word is a regular verb. Hence, its 1st, 2nd and 3rd forms are brake, braked and braked.
Therefore, the correct sentence would be ‘I braked quickly’ and NOT ‘I breaked quickly.’

Note: There is also another group of irregular verbs in which all the three forms of the verb are exactly the same.
They are;

Present (First Form)	Past (Second Form)	Past Participle (Third Form)
Bet	Bet	Bet
Cost	Cost	Cost
hurt	Hurt	Hurt