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kazinator 4 days ago

The curious situation is that verbs similar to prove have past participles which are just the same as the past tense. Even approve!

You don't say "your application has been approven".

Or "the problem has been solven".

Or "the quantity halved again, like it had halven before".

Or "that function has misbehaven again".

Or "I have moven the funds to the correct account".

Yet, "proven" is accepted.

dmurray 4 days ago | parent [-]

But, "I have given", "I have woven", "I have forgiven", and indeed "I have disproven" (also disproved). "-n" for a past participle of a verb like this is neither universal nor unique to prove. I believe you just have to learn English's irregular verbs; there are no useful rules to follow.

kazinator 4 days ago | parent [-]

Give has an irregular past tense though. I think if the past tense were gived, probably the past participle would be the same.

Same with: write, wrote, written; smite, smote, smitten; bit, bit, bitten; hide, hid, hidden; ride, ride, ridden; drive, drove, driven.

There's a pattern that the verbs with the en participles do not have ed regular past tenses. They have ove, ote, ode, it, id past tenses.

There are exceptions though like swell, swelled, swollen. It's fuzzy enough that any -en past participle will sound fine if you just get used to hearing it.