chooses

Chooses is the third-person singular present tense of the verb choose. It denotes the act of selecting from two or more options or possibilities. The form is used with he, she, or it, as in she chooses a path through the forest.

The base form is choose; the simple past is chose; the past participle is chosen; the present participle is choosing. These forms are irregular in the past tense and past participle, a distinction that matters for tense and aspect in English sentences.

Origins and cognates: The verb comes from Old English ceosan and has related forms in other Germanic languages, such as German wählen and Dutch kiezen. The word has retained its core meaning across centuries while expanding in use with different syntactic constructions.

Usage and examples: Choose can take a direct object, a to-infinitive, or a clause. For example, She chooses her words carefully, He chose to stay, and They chose that the project proceed. Common expressions include choose between and choose whether to do something. In questions and conditional clauses, the form adapts to the tense and subject, as in What will you choose? If you choose to participate, please confirm.

Common confusions: chose is the past tense, not the present, and chosen is the past participle used with has or have. Choose is often contrasted with synonyms such as select, pick, or elect, which carry varying degrees of formality or emphasis on deliberation.