Lately I've been having a duel over the past versus passed duo. These two words sound the same and when my writing brain is chugging along, it sometimes forgets which of these different-meaning words is appropriate.
According to Dictionary.com, passed refers to what something has done, such as having passed a slow-moving car in the left lane driving down the interstate or having passed an academic test. In contrast, past, according to Dictionary.com, is an intangible thing or adjective. As in forget the past. However, it can get complicated. When used as a preposition when talking about physically going by or beyond something, past is appropriate, as in I was looking for the library but I drove right past.
To determine whether passed or past is appropriate, evaluate your sentence critically and determine what exactly you wanted to say. If it is something the subject of your sentence did already regarding the verb pass, use passed. If it is not referring to something your subject did, use past. In the final example in the preceding paragraph, drove is the verb and past describes the driving or could be thought of as a thing; it was past, this is here.
Do you have any other tips or tricks for easily deciding if passed or past is correct? If so, please share in the comments below.
Happy passing!
The Wordsy Woman
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