past tense

Meanings

nounpast tense (plural past tenses)

grammarA grammatical form (often a verb form) that refers to an event, transaction, occurrence, or object that happened (or had happened), or existed, at some time before now (the applicable reference time).
As you have studied Spanish, you have probably had the feeling that there are just too many past tenses.
2009, Eric W. Vogt, Practice Makes Perfect: Spanish Past-Tense Verbs Up Close, McGraw Hill, page v
2 more examples
This is a report on a study of the use of the past tense forms in the 53 Japanese samples compiled for the Louvain International Database of Spoken English Interlanguage (LINDSEI) project.
2004, Tomoko Koneko, “The Use of Past Tense Forms by Japanese Learners of English”, in Junsaku Nakamura, Nagayuki Inoue, Tomoji Tabata, editors, English Corpora under Japanese Eyes, Rodopi, page 215
Some members of the [Mongolic language] family have three or more different affixes which seem to be markers of the past tense, so that in Khalkha, for example, irev, irjee, irlee, and irsen all can translate, and be translated by, the English past tense verb came.
2012, Robert I. Binnick, The Past Tenses of the Mongolian Verb, BRILL, page 1

verbpast tense (third-person singular simple present past tenses, present participle past tensing, simple past and past participle past tensed)

present singular third person past tenses · participle present past tensing · participle past past tensed · past past tensed

transitiveTo to end the life of something; to kill.

Synonyms & antonyms

nouna verb tense that expresses actions or states in the past

Similar

past

Broader

tense

Also see

past

Synonym sets from Open English WordNet, CC BY 4.0.

Translations

Afrikaans verlede tyd

verlede tydgrammatical form

Arabic مَاضٍ, الْمَاضِي

مَاضٍ (māḍin)grammatical form
الْمَاضِي (al-māḍī)grammatical form
فِعْل مَاضٍ (fiʕl māḍin)grammatical form
الْفِعْل الْمَاضِي (al-fiʕl al-māḍī)grammatical form

Basque lehenaldi

lehenaldigrammatical form

Bengali অতীত কাল

অতীত কাল (otit kal)grammatical form

Bulgarian ми́нало вре́ме

ми́нало вре́ме (mínalo vréme)grammatical form

Catalan passat, pretèrit

passatgrammatical form
pretèritgrammatical form

Chinese Mandarin 過去時態 /过去时态, 過去式 /过去式

過去時態 /过去时态 (guòqù shítài)grammatical form
過去式 /过去式 (guòqù shì)grammatical form
過去時 /过去时 (guòqùshí)grammatical form
過去式 /过去式 (guòqùshì)grammatical form

Czech minulý čas

minulý časgrammatical form

Danish datid, præteritum

datidgrammatical form
præteritumgrammatical form

Dutch verleden tijd

verleden tijdgrammatical form

Estonian minevik

minevikgrammatical form

Finnish imperfekti, kertoma

imperfektigrammatical form
kertomagrammatical form

French passé

passégrammatical form

German Vergangenheit, Präteritum

Vergangenheitgrammatical form
Präteritumgrammatical form

Greek αόριστος

αόριστος (aóristos)grammatical form

Hindi भूतकाल, भूत काल

भूतकाल (bhūtkāl)grammatical form
भूत काल (bhūt kāl)grammatical form
माज़ी (māzī)grammatical form

Hungarian múlt idő

múlt időgrammatical form

Icelandic þátíð

þátíðgrammatical form

Indonesian kala lampau

kala lampaugrammatical form

Italian passato

passatogrammatical form

Japanese 過去時制, 過去形

過去時制 (kako jisei)grammatical form
過去形 (kakokei)grammatical form

Korean 과거시제, 과거형

과거시제 (gwageosije)grammatical form
과거형 (gwageohyeong)grammatical form

Latin tempus praeteritum, praeteritum

tempus praeteritumgrammatical form
praeteritumgrammatical form

Latvian pagātnes laiks, pagātne

pagātnes laiksgrammatical form
pagātnegrammatical form

Lithuanian būtasis laikas

būtasis laikasgrammatical form

Malay masa lampau

masa lampaugrammatical form

Māori wāmua

wāmuagrammatical form

Norwegian Bokmål preteritum, datid

preteritumgrammatical form
datidgrammatical form

Polish czas przeszły

czas przeszłygrammatical form

Portuguese pretérito, passado

pretéritogrammatical form
passadogrammatical form

Romanian timp trecut

timp trecutgrammatical form

Russian проше́дшее вре́мя

проше́дшее вре́мя (prošédšeje vrémja)grammatical form

Scottish Gaelic tràth caithte

tràth caithtegrammatical form

Slovak minulý čas, préteritum

minulý časgrammatical form
préteritumgrammatical form

Spanish tiempo pasado, pretérito

tiempo pasadogrammatical form
pretéritogrammatical form

Swedish preteritum, dåtid

preteritumgrammatical form
dåtidgrammatical form
förfluten tidgrammatical form
imperfektgrammatical form

Tagalog panahunang pangnagdaan, naganap

panahunang pangnagdaangrammatical form
naganapgrammatical form

Tamil இறந்தகாலம்

இறந்தகாலம் (iṟantakālam)grammatical form

Thai อดีตกาล

อดีตกาล (à-dìit-dtà-gaan)grammatical form

Turkish geçmiş zaman

geçmiş zamangrammatical form

Ukrainian мину́лий час

мину́лий час (mynúlyj čas)grammatical form

Urdu ماضی, زَمانَۂ ماضی

ماضی (māzī)grammatical form
زَمانَۂ ماضی (zamāna-yi māzī)grammatical form

Vietnamese thời quá khứ, thì quá khứ

thời quá khứgrammatical form
thì quá khứgrammatical form

Welsh amser gorffennol

amser gorffennolgrammatical form

Cite this entry

APA

past tense. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 5, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/past%20tense

MLA

“past tense.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/past%20tense. Accessed November 5, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “past tense,” accessed November 5, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/past%20tense.

Source: past tense on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.

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