Why "had spoke" is a tense troublemaker

Reviewed and edited by

Lloyd Cooper 02/10/2024, 02:53

English.me team member

What kind of error is it?

Had spoke or had spoken. What's correct?

It is a grammatical error related to the incorrect use of past participle in the past perfect tense.

Why do people make this mistake?

People often mistakenly use the simple past tense form "spoke" instead of the past participle "spoken". This happens because "spoke" is more commonly used and people may not readily recall the correct past participle form.

What is correct?

The correct form is "had spoken", which uses the past participle "spoken" as required in the past perfect tense.

Examples of correct usage

She had spoken to him before the meeting.
By the time we arrived, the teacher had already spoken about the assignment.
They realized they had spoken too soon.