Passed vs past
Passed and past sound the same. Passed is a verb, the past form of pass. Past is never a verb. It means time gone by, or beyond or by something.
Passed ends in -ed, like walked and jumped, because it is a verb. Otherwise, use past.
passed verb
The past tense and past participle of pass: she passed, it has passed, it was passed.
- He passed three slower cars on the open highway.
- She passed her driving test on the first try.
past preposition
Going by a person, place or thing, or further than a certain point.
- She walked past the bakery, ignoring the smell of fresh bread.
- Their house is past the old bridge, on the left.
Watch out
- After a verb of movement such as walked or drove, use past. When has, have or had makes the perfect of pass, use passed: the deadline has passed. As an adjective, past stays past: from past experience.Cars rushed past as she waited at the curb.
- When time is the subject and pass is the verb in a past form, use passed: two weeks have passed. After a movement verb (the weeks flew past), or when you name time gone by, use past.Two weeks have passed quickly, and the past few days have been the busiest yet.
- When telling time, use past for the minutes after the hour.The train departs at twenty past eight from platform two.
Test yourself
She drove blank the school without stopping.
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past. Drove is already the verb. Past tells you where she went.
He blank all his exams this year.
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passed. The sentence needs a verb, and passed is the past form of pass.
In the blank, people wrote letters by hand.
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past. This names the time that has already gone by.
We blank a lovely little café on our walk.
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passed. The sentence has no other verb, so it needs passed.