Passed and Past

Passed and past

Think of passed as an action, and past as a time or place. Passed is a form of the verb pass; verbs are “doing words” and therefore describe an action. It will always be accompanied by a pronoun—he, she, they, we—a noun or collective noun—kids, people, animals—and will change its form according to the sentence’s tense, in this instance: pass, passing, passes and passed.

As he passed (action) his old school gates, he remembered his childhood, now long past (time).

Her new workplace was past (place) the college where she had passed (action) her exams.

In the past (time), the parades had passed (action) through these now empty streets.

If the above examples are written in a different tense, then passed will be written in a new form, but notice how past does not change.

He passes (action) his old school gates and thinks about the past (time).

Her new workplace will be past (place) the college, but first, she must pass (action) her exams.

In the past (time), the streets were filled with people watching the parades passing (action) by.