How to Use past tense in a Sentence

past tense

noun
  • The use of the past tense leaves those close to Chris with lumps in their throats.
    — Los Angeles Times, 6 July 2021
  • Referring to her in the past tense is still too painful to bare.
    — Michael Mayo, sun-sentinel.com, 14 Feb. 2019
  • Khoja’s use of the past tense isn’t because all this is over.
    — Cassie Werber, Quartz at Work, 12 Dec. 2019
  • Even their Wikipedia article now refers to them in the past tense.
    — John Norris, Billboard, 18 Nov. 2022
  • All of us are under such pressure to put our problems in the past tense.
    — Katarina Avendano, Good Housekeeping, 29 Apr. 2022
  • Spoke—either a past tense of speak or a part of a wheel—slashed that number to just two.
    — Erik Kain, Forbes, 27 Nov. 2023
  • But that’s all in the past tense now for Zanolli and her teammates.
    — Ann Killion, San Francisco Chronicle, 27 Apr. 2021
  • Stories can be told in the present tense, and then reviewed using past tense forms.
    — Los Angeles Times, 14 Sep. 2023
  • The past tense was unmistakable; the dream, at least in this current form, was over.
    — Emily Yoshida, Vulture, 22 Dec. 2021
  • My mother sees this day as the pinnacle of her youth, and speaks of her beauty in the past tense.
    — Devan Díaz, Los Angeles Times, 19 Oct. 2022
  • There'll be just a little bit less joy when speaking of Kobe Bryant in past tense.
    — J. Michael, Indianapolis Star, 27 Jan. 2020
  • In a political campaign, there is no past tense and there is no future tense.
    — Seema Mehta, latimes.com, 11 July 2019
  • Of course, fans immediately picked up on the past tense used in their answers.
    — Carolyn Twersky, Seventeen, 20 May 2020
  • Correa, a free agent, talked about the Astros in the past tense on Tuesday.
    — BostonGlobe.com, 6 Nov. 2021
  • That all sounded past tense and very fatal; even actress Molino thought so.
    — Bryan Alexander, USA Today, 15 Oct. 2025
  • The story people read on Twitter is a story being told in the past tense.
    — Rachel Handler, Vulture, 30 June 2021
  • My children talk about the pandemic in the past tense, something at least a year removed from daily life.
    — Carrie McKean, The Week, 25 Dec. 2021
  • But the past tense of que sera sera is what used to be used to be, and growing up is getting to know it, accepting that lives move on.
    — Los Angeles Times, 25 Jan. 2023
  • Now Correa is already talking about Houston in the past tense.
    — BostonGlobe.com, 3 Apr. 2021
  • Russell already speaks in the past tense about her two-bedroom on Barrow Street.
    — Bridget Read, Curbed, 2 Feb. 2021
  • By the time the duo started performing the song a year later, Dye says, the pain had been in the past tense for a few months.
    — Nancy Kruh, PEOPLE.com, 13 Aug. 2019
  • During the 16th century, its past tense gave rise to the modern hoist/hoisted.
    — Melissa Mohr, The Christian Science Monitor, 27 Sep. 2021
  • Shrove is the past tense of shrive, which means to gain absolution of sins by confession and repentance.
    — Greg Garrison, AL.com, 13 Feb. 2018
  • But few convention speakers made reference to the virus, while others have discussed it in the past tense.
    — Jill Colvin, Anchorage Daily News, 28 Aug. 2020
  • Silicon Valley Bank is now past tense, but the crisis kicked off by its collapse is not.
    — Lila MacLellan, Fortune, 21 Mar. 2023
  • Note the past tense here; Charlie's death burst the fantasy of their happy family.
    — Sara Netzley, EW.com, 24 Oct. 2022
  • The past tense has become a constant companion in the present moment, as every facet of my life has changed due to the pandemic.
    — Ekemini Uwan, The Atlantic, 13 June 2020
  • The collective millions of dollars spent to acquire and restore the cars, all the time, research and sweat — all slipped into past tense.
    — Susan Callaway, Los Angeles Times, 29 Aug. 2019
  • To quote Roosevelt, in the past tense, The only fear to fear was fear itself — fear of an economic meltdown.
    — Laurence Kotlikoff, Forbes, 11 July 2022
  • But even though his mother and grandmother’s bodies have not been found, Rodriguez has slipped into thinking of them in the past tense.
    — Los Angeles Times, 3 July 2021

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'past tense.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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