What Is The Past Tense Of Beat?
The past tense for beat is “beat” (the same word as the present tense). Despite its popularity in English, many English learners often confuse whether beat or beated is the correct past of beat.
This is an irregular verb. As a result, you cannot add the suffix “ed” into the present form to make the past tense. Regarding the past participle of beat, you should learn the word by heart because it is not the same as the other tense: beaten.
For quickly studying, we have made a table to summarize all forms of this verb. Remember to write these words down in your notebook.
| Form | Verb |
| Bare | beat |
| Present participle | beating |
| 3rd person singular | beats |
| Past | beat |
| Past participle | beaten |
Let’s find out its pronunciation in this video and practice it yourself:
How Do You Spell Beat In Past Tense?
This word has the same pronunciation for present and past forms. It is also an English 1-syllable word. Thus, you only need to pay attention to the /i:/ sound.
Stretch out your lips and place your tongue high in front of your mouth to create a long-voiced sound. Here is a tip to pronounce this sound: smiling when speaking.
Moreover, when it comes to the participle form: beaten, remember to put the stress on the first syllable.
This table below will list down the official IPA of each word:
| Form Of Word | Pronunciation | |
| US | UK | |
| beat | /biːt/ | /biːt/ |
| beat | /biːt/ | /biːt/ |
| beaten | /ˈbiːtn/ | /ˈbiːtn/ |
Definition And How To Use
This irregular verb has some meanings:
- To defeat another person or team in a competition or game.
- To do better than another thing.
- To control something
- To be challenging for someone
- To avoid something
- To hit a person hard and several times to hurt them
- To mix things with quick and short movements (with chopsticks, a fork, etc.)
Because the present and the past form of “beat” are the same, you need to be careful when using them. Here are some examples you can refer to learn how to use these verb forms properly:
- My team beat the SGP team by just 2 points when we fought in the last game yesterday.
- Did Anna beat the school record for running?
- The pretty girl took Anna out into this street and beat her senselessly.
- When they met yesterday, Andy beat Timmy hard.
- Hailstones beat against her car window.
- She didn’t beat the egg gently, as I told her.
Exercises
His name is Benjamin Essek – The founder of Grammar Wiki. He is an English native speaker and has joined many English classes, learning communities to support other people with this common language as well.