Passed and Past
Imagine this: You get the results of your test. You’re excited to share the good news with your family. What do you tell them?
B) I passed the test!
If you chose “B,” congratulations, you passed this quiz. But if you answered incorrectly, don’t feel bad. These words are commonly mixed up because they’re spelled similarly and pronounced almost identically. Below, we’re going to elaborate on the difference between passed and past.
How To Use “Passed” Correctly
There’s no other way to say this, but passed is the past tense and past participle of the verb pass.
Passed can only ever function as a verb—nothing else. It has quite a few meanings under its belt. A few of them are:
1. To exceed or surpass
2. To proceed or extend beyond
3. To go away
4. To reach the required standard in an exam, course, etc.
5. To accept a proposal, law, or rule
6. To go unnoticed
7. To be transferred or to give something to somebody
8. To decline
9. To give somebody a message
10. To throw, hit, or kick a ball
Passed away is a phrasal verb that means “to die.” You wouldn’t say past away.
Passed is one of the many forms of pass. Its other forms are passes and passing. This is one major distinction from past, which has no conjugation.
How To Use “Past” Correctly
Past can function as an adjective, adverb, noun, and preposition.
As an adjective, past means “gone by in time,” or “belonging to an earlier time.”
As an adverb, past means “go beyond a point; from one side of something to the other.” It can also be used “to indicate the passing of time.”
Past as a noun refers to “an earlier period of time.” It is the opposite of future.
And finally, as a preposition, past is used to tell time or to mean “at the farther side of somebody or something.”
Don’t Pass Up on Flawless Writing
Remember this:
Past will always remain as past. For example:
However, passed can be two of five forms of the verb (to) pass.
Another quick and easy way you can ensure that you’re using passed and past correctly is to use LanguageTool as your text editor. This advanced, multilingual text editor will detect incorrect use of passed and past because spelling and grammar mistakes are a thing of the past.
