Fell or fallen

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Creativeguru

#511561 Fri, 09 May 08 10:24 AM

I usually get confused when to use fell and fallen in the sentence kindly if someone can clear my doubt regarding this

Creativeguru

Joined on Fri, Feb 8 2008

India

Frequent Poster (498)

New2grammar

#511565 Fri, 09 May 08 10:38 AM

Do you know that fallen is the past participle of fall and fell is the past tense?

He fell down the stairs yesterday. Look at his poor leg in the cast.

Due to the sex scandal, the NewYork senator who used to be popular because of his efforts in cracking down on prostitution rings is now a fallen star.

New2grammar

Joined on Tue, Nov 21 2006

Advanced Member (2,807)

Creativeguru

#511569 Fri, 09 May 08 10:46 AM

Do you know that fallen is the past participle of fall and fell is the past tense?>>No

Can you eleborate on it or give me references and what is basic difference between past tense and past participle?

Creativeguru

Difference between, Tenses, Past tenses

Yoong Liat

#511571 Fri, 09 May 08 10:50 AM

Creativeguru

I usually get confused when to use fell and fallen in the sentence kindly if someone can clear my doubt regarding this

fall fell fallen

fell felled felled

I often fall down. (present)

I often fell down when I was a child. (past)

I've fallen down. (now or some time ago)

A woodcutter fells trees for a living. (present)

The woodcutter felled the tree. (past)

The woodcutter has felled the tree. (now or some time ago)

Yoong Liat

Joined on Mon, Sep 4 2006

Singapore

Forum Guru (5,025)

Yoong Liat

New2grammar

#511573 Fri, 09 May 08 10:53 AM

I have to say I'm shocked to hear that. Your command of English is pretty good yet you've never learned that? No offense. I guess we have very different education systems.

Try to search the forum for them. You should get hundreds of threads on this topic.

New2grammar

Creativeguru

#511575 Fri, 09 May 08 10:55 AM

Thanks Yoong Lait for such a wonderful explanation.

Kindly correct me if I am wrong in the last sentence of the examples you provided

'The woodcutter has felled the tree.'

I think it should be fallen instead of felled.

Creativeguru

New2grammar

#511577 Fri, 09 May 08 10:59 AM

Oh no! I wasn't aware of the second set "fell felled fellen"? I think I heard of them when I was a kid and today is the first time in years.

What's the difference between the first and the second?

New2grammar

Difference between

26TMNTJG2PG

#511605 Fri, 09 May 08 12:48 PM

To solve the problem, one has to understand tenses and voices (active and passive) apart from having a good vocabulary. I have come across an article titled TENSES which, if digested properly, should provide some help.

26TMNTJG2PG

Joined on Wed, Apr 23 2008

Member (53)

Articles, Vocabulary, Tenses

Grammar Geek

#511816 Fri, 09 May 08 11:09 PM

Guys, don't get excited about this. I don't think I have EVER had a need to use "fell" as in the "the wood cutter felled the tree" in my entire existence.

Worry about the:

I fall down a lot.

I fell down the stairs yesterday.

I have fallen on this slippery spot in the past, so be careful!

version.

If you ever need to talk about the wood cutter, just say he "chopped down" or "cut down" the tree!