Advertisement - Continue reading below

Definition of "past tense" []

  • A verb tense used to express an action or a condition that occurred in or during the past. For example, in While she was sewing, he read aloud, was sewing and read are in the past tense. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Use "past tense" in a sentence
  • "Why, it is just like being the past tense of the compound reflexive adverbial incandescent hypodermic irregular accusative Noun of Multitude; which is father to the expression which the grammarians call Verb."
  • "In the original Hebrew, the first was is explicit; the actual past tense of the verb to be haytah, in Hebrew is used."
  • "Helva caught the past tense and wondered again at Parollan's attitude."
Words like "past tense"