sung
- 1Past participle of sing.
The anthem was sung before the match began.
She has sung in three languages this evening.
Note
The form that comes after have or be: she has sung, the anthem was sung. Because sing readily takes an object (a song, a hymn, a lullaby), it builds the passive as easily as the perfect. The plain past is sang, and the pair is easy to keep straight: sang stands alone (she sang), while sung needs a helper (she has sung).
- 2Simple past of sing. Older or informal; sang is the usual past tense.
He sung the ballad softly while the fire burned low.
Lulled by the Syren-song that my own heart sung to me, with eyes shut to all sight, and ears closed to all sound of danger, I drifted nearer and nearer to the fatal rocks.
1859, Wilkie Collins, The Woman in WhiteNote
An older past tense that still turns up in regional speech. Wilkie Collins could write of the song "my own heart sung to me" in The Woman in White (1859) without it sounding odd. Standard English now keeps this form for the participle after have or be, so he sung suits dialogue that imitates regional or period voices, not ordinary prose.
sung is a form of sing
sing, verb: To make musical sounds with the voice, or to perform a song or words this way. Full entry
- Spelling
- sing → sung: irregular (no -ed)
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