"the bell has went"

This used to drive me mad at school (and it wasn't just the pupils who got it wrong!): the inability in the West of Scotland to get the right past participle. The past participle is the part of the verb used after have, has or had. Perhaps, though, it is a feature of Scots and should be celebrated. Again it is about the difference between spoken and written English and knowing the difference.

Here are some common English strong verbs in the simple past and the perfect tense

it went: it has gone

it came: it has come

it began: it has begun

it fell: it has fallen

it got: it has gotten

it ran: it has run
it sang: it has sung
it swam: it has swum
it ate: it has eaten
it drank: it has drunk
it wrote: it has written
it drew: it has drawn
it broke: it has broken
it took: it has taken
it stole: it has stolen

I love Bud Neill's poem, "Winter"  - meant to be read aloud.

Winter's came, the snow has fell


Wee Josie's nose is froze as well


Wee Josie's frozen nose is skintit


Winter's diabolic, intit?

More less troublesome examples of use of the past participle 

The manuscript written in the 13th century was discovered in a library.


The property taken by burglars included …

It's not just the Scots who have trouble with past participles though. Here's one trawled from the internet

a beautiful song by the rankin family sang in gaelic titel in english is the mist covered mountains 
(not to mention the non-sentences, spelling, lack of punctuation or capital letters!)

Test yourself

The following are wrong. Replace with the correct past participle.

1. It has came to my attention.
2. The bell has went.
3. Snow has fell.
4. Winter's began.
5. He has drank a lot of coffee. 
6. They have sang together for years.
7. He has broke a tooth.

 Answers: paste the upside down answers into FLIP

 to save turning the computer upside down!

˙ɥʇooʇ ɐ uǝʞoɹq sɐɥ ǝɥ 7

˙sɹɐǝʎ ɹoɟ ɹǝɥʇǝƃoʇ ƃuns ǝʌɐɥ ʎǝɥʇ 6

 ˙ǝǝɟɟoɔ ɟo ʇol ɐ ʞunɹp sɐɥ ǝɥ 5

˙unƃǝq s,ɹǝʇuıʍ 4

˙uǝllɐɟ sɐɥ ʍous 3

˙ǝuoƃ sɐɥ llǝq ǝɥʇ 2

˙uoıʇuǝʇʇɐ ʎɯ oʇ ǝɯoɔ sɐɥ ʇı 1