What's the difference between forgive and forgiven?

Forgive


Definition:

  • (v. t.) To give wholly; to make over without reservation; to resign.
  • (v. t.) To give up resentment or claim to requital on account of (an offense or wrong); to remit the penalty of; to pardon; -- said in reference to the act forgiven.
  • (v. t.) To cease to feel resentment against, on account of wrong committed; to give up claim to requital from or retribution upon (an offender); to absolve; to pardon; -- said of the person offending.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) One of the most interesting aspects of the shadow cabinet elections, not always readily interpreted because of the bizarre process of alliances of convenience, is whether his colleagues are ready to forgive and forget his long years as Brown's representative on earth.
  • (2) In 1999, Kamprad admitted his past involvement with Nazism in a book about his life and asked for forgiveness for his "stupidity."
  • (3) Perhaps he is instinctively more forgiving about avoiding tax, which some right-wingers always regard as an indecent affront, than the free use of public funds.
  • (4) He argues that whenever you have periods of crazy expansion of virtual credit, like today, you either have to have a safety valve of forgiveness, like in Mesopotamia where you wiped the tablets clean every seven years, or you have an outbreak of social violence so intense you rip society apart.
  • (5) The euro elite insists it is representing the interests of Portuguese or Irish taxpayers who have to pick up the bill for bailing out the feckless Greeks – or will be enraged by any debt forgiveness when they have been forced to swallow similar medicine.
  • (6) But Blair's address - "history will forgive us" - was a dubious exercise in group therapy: the cheers smacked of pathetic gratitude, as he piously pardoned the legislators, as well as himself, for the catastrophe of Iraq.
  • (7) Please, forgive me,” Choi Soon-sil, a cult leader’s daughter with a decades-long connection to Park, said through tears inside the Seoul prosecutor’s building, according to Yonhap news agency.
  • (8) Resisting dictatorships is more worthwhile than accepting them and thinking things will change by themselves.” Asked if the suffering for a majority of South Sudanese citizens could be stopped if Machar and his colleagues gave up the fight, the rebel leader says “giving up would be irresponsible” and that “history would not forgive him” for it.
  • (9) Women are forgiving if you can make it seem like this,” Rock Hard writes.
  • (10) I believe this has made it more possible to forgive.
  • (11) But we’ll know if things have changed when we can walk down the street after dark without being stopped.” Ron McBride, 48, was more forgiving.
  • (12) And it has proved too forgiving of welfare abuse, too obsessed with universal human rights, and too enthusiastic about immigration.
  • (13) Sometimes the public’s legitimate fears are exposed: in Colombia there’s no doubt the public felt uneasy about forgiving Farc for its bloody violence.
  • (14) The hardest thing is forgiving yourself, but it is necessary to do that.” As for the rest of the world and its concerns, Baez is willing to offer her personal support to causes that are particularly close to her heart, most notably the campaign against the death penalty in the United States.
  • (15) Yet in the wake of the second world war, West Germany managed to secure 15bn deutschmarks of debt forgiveness, in what became known as the London agreement.
  • (16) "Forgive me if I'm wrong, but does Crystal Palace-Spurs not count as a London derby?"
  • (17) When Margaret Thatcher died in April 2013, the Sheffield Star led with the headline: “We Will Never Forgive Her” .
  • (18) Both forgiveness and justice were related but distinct constructs.
  • (19) But the journalist Alexander Chancellor, a friend since Cambridge, agrees with Stoppard that despite sometimes sounding "over censorious, he is actually incredibly warm hearted and very forgiving.
  • (20) In return, the survivors were expected to offer forgiveness and the courts to impose lesser sentences, often resulting in immediate release from prison.

Forgiven


Definition:

  • (p. p.) of Forgive

Example Sentences:

  • (1) Then, when he was forgiven, he walked along a moonbeam and said to Ha-Notsri [Hebrew name for Jesus of Nazareth]: “You know, you were right.
  • (2) Read any technology trends article and you’d be forgiven for thinking all roads lead to the cloud.
  • (3) Updated at 12.23pm BST 12.04pm BST As Mariano Rajoy and François Hollande prepare to reveal their austerity budgets (Spain goes on Thursday and France on Friday), they might be forgiven for casting an envious eye towards Australia where government statisticians revealed that the country is A$325bn (£200bn) better off than they'd thought.
  • (4) He added: “From what we’ve seen so far, Londoners can be forgiven for wondering if Zac will be a mayor who works to bring London’s diverse communities together or one who will drive them apart.” Others evince real surprise over Goldsmith’s stance.
  • (5) I have reflected on everything that happened to me and my family and I have forgiven my tormentors.
  • (6) Discontent with the monarchy is no longer confined to avowedly republican parties or rightwingers, who have never forgiven the king for introducing democracy and transforming the state handed to him by dictator General Francisco Franco on his death in 1975, when Spain's historically fragile monarchy was restored for the second time in a century.
  • (7) The system of government he had built was defiantly non-western, relying not on institutions but on individuals, key power-brokers prized for their loyalty and forgiven for faults that horrified overseas observers.
  • (8) I was glad to receive some emails after the reversal applauding the decision as though all was forgiven and, I wondered, perhaps even soon to be forgotten.
  • (9) Putin could have been forgiven for allowing himself a wry grin, as another court comprehensively trashed Berezovsky's reputation.
  • (10) Indeed, you might be forgiven for thinking that the bill was a golden opportunity for Labour to return to principle and express its opposition to anyone being obliged to work without pay.
  • (11) The argument about academies and free schools is one thing, but this runs much deeper: even if they support what the government is doing to schools, people could be forgiven for expecting consistency, transparency and a model of government whereby ministers might understand that supposedly independent bodies have to be seen to be so, and that even the appearance of collusion can be toxic.
  • (12) Last July Swatis might have been forgiven for thinking their misfortune was over.
  • (13) At CPAC, conservatives dedicated an entire panel to “The Future of Marriage.” One could be forgiven for assuming it tackled the issue via the sub-topic “Gays, and the Ickiness Thereof,” because that was the default assumption among those attending CPAC as part of an ongoing More Jaded Than Thou contest.
  • (14) How they got here You'll be forgiven if you thought they were still cursed, if you had been following recent baseball history.
  • (15) I have no doubt that it is related to the incident in 2005, but I have forgiven my ex-boyfriend for what happened.
  • (16) In the packed cafe area at the top of Libération’s offices, where the surviving members of Charlie Hebdo have been working since Friday, editor-in-chief Gérard Biard held up the new edition of the magazine, which features a picture of the prophet Muhammad crying below the words “All is forgiven”.
  • (17) Ford was an action man and audiences could be forgiven for thinking this was going to be a sort of Indiana Jones and the Flying Police Car.
  • (18) Indeed, if you were to wander into a court martial today by accident, you could be forgiven for thinking that behind one of the doors was a yard with a pole at one end and a small group of idle soldiers awaiting orders to shoot at the other.
  • (19) It is only two years since Weiner was forced to resign after lying about sending sexually explicit photographs of himself to women, and the poll findings show there is little sign that the electorate has forgiven him.
  • (20) I have forgiven them, maybe they didn't know what they were doing."