The past participle of 'drain' is drained.
'Drain' is a regular verb, which means that its past simple tense and past participle forms are identical, both created by adding '-ed' to the base form.
Understanding Past Participles
Past participles are versatile verb forms that play a crucial role in English grammar, allowing for the construction of various tenses, the passive voice, and even serving as adjectives. For regular verbs like 'drain', forming the past participle is straightforward: simply add '-ed' to the base verb.
Common Applications of 'Drained' as a Past Participle:
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Forming Perfect Tenses: When combined with auxiliary verbs such as 'have', 'has', or 'had', 'drained' helps construct the present perfect, past perfect, and future perfect tenses.
- Present Perfect: "The pool has drained completely."
- Past Perfect: "Before the storm, we had drained the water barrels."
- Future Perfect: "By noon, all the liquid will have drained from the system."
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Constructing the Passive Voice: Used with forms of the verb 'to be', 'drained' indicates that the subject of the sentence is receiving the action rather than performing it.
- "The marshland was drained to create new farmland."
- "The battery is being drained rapidly by this application."
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Functioning as an Adjective: A past participle can modify a noun, describing a state or condition that results from an action.
- "After the long hike, everyone felt utterly drained." (describes the people's state)
- "He replaced the drained oil filter." (describes the filter's condition)
- "The drained swamp slowly began to dry out." (describes the swamp)
Conjugation of 'Drain'
As a regular verb, 'drain' follows a consistent conjugation pattern. For example, when examining verb conjugations, such as those found on comprehensive grammar resources like WordReference.com, the past tense form for various subjects is consistently 'drained'. This same form also serves as the past participle.
| Subject | Past Tense Form |
|---|---|
| I | drained |
| You | drained |
| He, She, It | drained |
| We | drained |
| They | drained |
This table illustrates how the past tense form is 'drained' across different subjects, which is identical to its past participle form.
Practical Insights for Usage
- Regular vs. Irregular Verbs: Remember that 'drain' is regular. This means you don't need to memorize a unique past participle form, unlike irregular verbs such as go (gone) or eat (eaten).
- Contextual Meaning: The specific meaning and nuance of 'drained' can shift based on its grammatical role in a sentence. Pay attention to auxiliary verbs and sentence structure to fully grasp its intended impact.
Understanding that 'drained' is the past participle of 'drain' simplifies the process of forming correct tenses and sentence structures, ensuring clarity and precision in communication.
