“What Is Love? I have met in the streets a very poor young man who was in love. Here are some examples of each word from literature. A quarter past noon (meaning: fifteen minutes after noon).The past few days (meaning: the most recent couple of days).Walked past / drove past (meaning: walked beyond or drove beyond).Past the sell by date (meaning: beyond the sell by date).Past tense (meaning: the grammatical tense referring to things that have already happened).The past (meaning: things that have already happened).Here are some common phrases that include the word “past”: You can say I think I drove past the destination already, meaning that you drove farther than you were supposed to. You could say I’ve been really busy these past few days, meaning that you were really busy during the most recent couple of days that have gone by.Īs a preposition, past means the same thing as 'beyond' or 'farther than.' You could say, It’s all in the past now, meaning that something happened so long ago that it's no longer relevant now.Īs an adjective, past means 'gone by in time and no longer existing.' It can be used as a noun, an adjective, an adverb, or even a preposition.Īs a noun, past refers to the period of time before the moment of speaking or writing. The word “past” is a little trickier, because it has several different meanings. Passed the butter (present tense: pass the butter).Passed a test (present tense: pass a test).Here are some common phrases that include the word “passed,” all of which are the past tense: She passes me the gravy (present tense) → She passed me the gravy (past tense) You pass the physics exam (present tense) → You passed the physics exam (past tense) I pass the ball to my teammate (present tense) → I passed the ball to my teammate (past tense) When you add -ed to the end of the verb “pass,” you modify the meaning of the sentence to show that the event it's describing already happened. “Passed” is the past tense form of the verb “to pass.” Read on to see examples of each word in context, as well as tips for remembering which one to use. If the word you want is the action word of the sentence, then it should be the verb passed. You can tell it's a verb because it ends with -ed like most verbs in the past tense. In contrast, passed generally deals with movement. I passed by the shops on my way home.Ī good way to remember the difference is to think that past, which ends with a T, usually refers to time, which begins with a T. Passed is the past participle of the verb to pass. As an adjective: The past month has been crazy.Past can also be used as an adjective, adverb, or noun.

Past means beyond in place, quantity or time when used as a preposition, e.g. So how do you remember which spelling you should use? It’s easy to get the two mixed up when you’re writing. “Passed” and “past” are homophones, which means that they have different definitions, even though they sound the same.

Past vs passed