The word passed is the past-tense form of the verb ‘to pass.’ In contrast, the word past is an adjective, adverb, noun, or preposition that generally conveys time or distance, not an action.
-
Alanna Madden
-
May 13, 2020
-
Grammar Tips
The word passed is the past-tense form of the verb ‘to pass.’ In contrast, the word past is an adjective, adverb, noun, or preposition that generally conveys time or distance, not an action.
No matter how long you’ve studied the English Language, certain words or phrases “slip past” you long enough until, one day, you ask, “is it ‘passed’ or ‘past’?” If you’ve found yourself in a similar existential quandary involving pass vs. past, you’ve come to the right place (and, for the record, it’s “slip past”).
Passed is the past tense form of the verb “to pass,” which means ‘go by’ or ‘move past’ something. But unlike “passed,” the word past is not a verb. The term past is an adjective, adverb, preposition, or noun that we use to describe how or where objects and actions existed at an earlier time.
So, if we use words like “past” after a verb, we are essentially describing where an object moved in relation to something else. This is how most verbal phrases like “get past” or “past due” function. If we use a verb with another verb like “slip passed,” it’s fairly obvious that we’ve made a grammatical mistake. After all, we don’t “swim kick” or “eat drink,” right?
There are several reasons why both native and non-native English writers mistake these tricky words. To start, past and passed are homophones, which means they sound similar but have different meanings. Additionally, passed and past each describe past objects and actions because they are related to the same verb, ‘to pass.’
According to The Oxford Dictionary of Word Histories, past is a Middle English variant of passed, the past participle of the verb pass. The word pass is a Middle English verb that originated in Old French with ‘passer’ and Latin ‘passus’ for “pace” (Chantrell 365).
As we can see, both terms are similar in how they describe former states, but we use either word very differently, nonetheless:
The word past is an adjective, adverb, noun, and preposition that we use to locate sentence objects in time and space. To use the word past correctly, the location of such elements must exist in a former, past time.
As an adjective, we use the word past to describe something as:
Ancient, bygone, defunct, earlier, erstwhile, extinct, former, last, late, latter, old, over, previous, recent, was.
We use the adverb form of past to describe how something passes from one side to another, or to indicate the passage of time. For example,
“The soft air drifted past us.”
“The time flew past them.”
Along, by, on.
The noun form of past typically refers to “the past,” or a moment in time that already occurred before the present. In this case, we use “past” to describe the formal history of something, but it’s important to note how “past” may informally reference a shameful past, as well. For example,
“Learn about the museum’s incredible past” vs. “She has an interesting past.”
Background, biography, date, experience, formerly, history, life, previously.
The prepositional form of past introduces spatial awareness to sentence objects. In this case, we can use “past” as a preposition to indicate how something exists:
Along, across, between, beyond, by, down, in front of, to the side of, via.
The word passed is the past participle form of the verb “to pass.” We can use the word pass as a transitive or intransitive verb to mean “to go by,” “leave behind,” “transfer,” or “proceed” toward a direction. However, the verb passed carries several connotations that are not always intuitive.
Let’s take a look at the most common definitions for passed as the past tense form of the verb pass:
The verb pass is one of the most commonly confused words in the English language for a reason: the verb forms are all over the place. Remember how passed is the past tense of the verb pass? Well, there are also circumstances when we can use passed for the future and present tenses, too.
To understand how this is possible, let’s break down the verb pass into its many forms: pass, passed, and passing.
The word pass or passes is the simple present tense form of the verb ‘to pass.’ For example,
“I pass by frequently.”
“She passes by frequently.”
We can also use ‘pass’ for the future tense with “will pass,” but make sure to avoid changing pass to passes for the “she,” “he,” or “it” pronouns.
“They will pass by.”
“This will pass shortly.”
We use passed as the simple past tense form of pass, but we also use passed for the present, future, and past perfect tenses. For example,
Simple past tense: “You passed the test.”
Present perfect tense: “You have passed the test.” or
“She has passed the test.”
Future perfect tense: “You will have passed the test by then.”
Past perfect: “They had passed the test by then.”
We use “passing” for all present, past, and future continuous tenses to indicate continual movement. For example,
Present continuous: “I am passing by.”
“You are passing by.”
“It is passing by.”
Present perfect cont.: “I have been passing by.”
“He has been passing by.”
Past continuous: “I was passing by.”
“You were passing by.”
Past perfect cont.: “You had been passing by.”
Future continuous: “We will be passing by.”
Future perfect cont.: “They will have been passing by.”
Now that we understand how to write the verb pass in multiple tense forms, it’s time to compare examples of past vs. passed. But before we get started, it’s important to remember how the words past and passed are not the same:
Try to determine the right words for the following sentences: past or passed?
“Barack Obama is a ______ (past/passed) President of the United States.”
Correct: “Barack Obama is a past President of the United States.”
Incorrect: “Barack Obama is a passed President of the United States.”
The first sentence is correct because the adjective “past” describes Barack Obama’s official title as a former entity. The second sentence is incorrect because it infers that Obama was passed along to something.
“You shall not _______ (past/pass)!”
Correct: “You shall not pass!”
Incorrect: “You shall not past!”
The famous Lord of the Rings quote may be a dead giveaway, but it clearly shows how past and passed have very different meanings. The first sentence is correct because “pass” refers to the movement forward (or the denial of such). The second sentence doesn’t make sense because “past” is not a verb.
“Your dog _______ (past/pass) away during a _______ (past/pass) weekend.”
Correct: “Your dog passed away during a past weekend.”
Incorrect: “Your dog past away during a passed weekend.”
The first sentence is correct because the word “passed” infers the passage of life (aka death), while “past” references the time in which the death occurred. Similar to the previous example, the second sentence is incorrect because “past” is not an action.
You can pass a test or get past a challenge, but how well can you use “pass” and “past” on your own? See how much you’ve learned about past vs. passed with the following multiple-choice questions.
Answers