A couple of weeks ago, my significant other sauntered into the bedroom and started whispering sweet nothings in my ear. As he edged closer, he said, “What is the problem with people? Why don’t they know the difference between past and passed?!” Okay, maybe he needs to work on his technique. “Write it down. I’ll deal with it later,” I said, and then put the pillow on my head.
We all have our peeves, and this is one of his. I found a good article about it, but I don’t want to put it all down here, so I’ll do my best to condense the information.
I love this first part from Grammar-Monster.com:
The Really Quick Answer: "Passed" is the past tense of "to pass." For everything else, use "past."
And that’s it!
No, of course I wouldn’t do that to you, but that is the quick answer.
Here is the longer answer. When we’re writing, we “talk” through it in our heads. As we type out what we “hear,” homonyms are easily misspelled when our fingers are busy. (Remember, homonyms are words that sound the same but are spelled differently [they’re, their, there]). If someone said “passed” when they meant “past,” you wouldn’t hear a difference in the pronunciation.
So, let’s look at some examples, and maybe a helpful hint if you are someone who does this. [Note: This is one
of those things that spell check doesn’t always catch.]
The verb pass means to “move, go, proceed, depart, die.” Different forms of the verb are passed, passing, and passes. Here are some examples of passed, the past tense of “to pass”:
- Bobo passed through the garden, looking for the balloon man.
- The fairgoers accidentally passed by the best exhibit: pig races.
- Once the red car passed the finish line, the audience erupted with applause.
There are other uses of “passed,” but we are just going to cover the basics right now. And past is a little trickier, because it can be used as an adjective, preposition, noun, and adverb. Usually it means “a time before the present.” Here are examples of each use:
Past
- (adjective – ago, elapsed) The past few months, I’ve been feeling particularly energetic.
- (preposition – after) The train is leaving at half past six.
- (noun – time before the present) I always try to make sensible decisions now, so that I don’t regret the past.
- (adverb – go beyond a point nearby) Sylvie was standing in front of the house, but her friend Poppy walked past, without as much as a “hello.”
When in doubt, remember Grammar-Monster’s quick tip from above: "Passed" is the past tense of "to pass." For everything else, use "past."
I hope that helps. For information, see these Editor’s Corner articles from the past:
- https://episystechpubs.com/2012/07/18/editors-corner-passed-and-past/
- https://episystechpubs.com/2015/06/17/editors-corner-past-and-passed/
- https://episystechpubs.com/2016/11/07/editors-corner-the-past-has-passed/
- Editor’s Corner: Past, Passed, and Puppy | Editor’s Corner
Kara Church | Technical Editor, Advisory | Knowledge Enablement
Pronouns: she/her | Call via Teams | jackhenry.com
Editor’s Corner Archives: https://episystechpubs.com/
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