Past Tense Of Clean: Cleaned Or Clean? (Pronunciation & Usage)

What Is The Past Tense Of Clean?

Today, we aren’t all set to discuss irregular verbs like the verb broadcast or the verb rewind. The cornerstone of today’s lesson is the verb clean. 

Get downtown and go for the past tense of clean: it’s cleaned. You could spell it C-L-E-A-N-E-D. In other words, you just add the suffixes -ed for the present verb tense “clean”. 

Aside from that, its verb forms V1 V2 of clean are “clean” and “cleans”, respectively. For the detailed tense conjugation, you could go to the website Wordpreference as well. Now, spend a little time looking at the verb chart about five forms of clean:

Base Form/Derived Form (V1)	clean
Present Form/3rd Person/Singular Form (V2)	cleans
Past Form (V3)	cleaned
Past Participle Form (V4)	cleaned
Present Participle/Gerund (V5)	cleaning

How To Pronounce English Verbs Correctly?

In the next section, what grasps your attention is a table depicting how to pronounce all tense verbs correctly.

Take a peek at this and practice them as per American English and British accents (refer to the online Dictionary Oxford):

Form of word	Pronunciation
	British English	American English
clean	/kliːn/	/kliːn/
cleans	/kliːnz/	/kliːnz/
cleaned(V3)	/kliːnd/	/kliːnd/
cleaned(V4)	/kliːnd/	/kliːnd/
cleaning	/ˈkliːnɪŋ/	/ˈkliːnɪŋ/

What Are The Definitions Of Clean?

Here comes a list of four meanings of our today’s verb, according to English community experts. 

Head for them right now, as they are all understandable and readable. 

1. To eliminate the inside parts of a chicken, fish, etc., before cooking it.

• After removing the backbone, she cleans the meat cautiously.

• After removing the spine, she cleaned the meat cautiously.

• After removing the backbone, she had cleaned the meat cautiously.

2. To wash garments using chemicals (not using water).

• All the clothes look so filthy, so he cleans them with superior detergents.

• All the clothes look so filthy, so he cleans them with superior detergents.

• All the clothes look so filthy, so he cleans them with superior detergents.

3. To become clean.

• These convenient cooking appliances clean with ease.

• These convenient cooking appliances cleaned with ease.

• These convenient cooking appliances had cleaned with ease.

4. To get rid of the dust or dirt from something.

• Herbakin mildly cleans his wound, then dresses it.

• Herbakin mildly cleaned his wound, then dressed it.

• Herbakin mildly had cleaned his wound before dressing it.

Vocabulary Quiz: A List Of Question Words!

It’s high time you did a minor 5-min test:

1. We …………………………. the machines down at the end of each day.

a. clean   b. cleaned   c. cleaning d. cleans

2. Harry caught the fish and ……………………. them himself.

a. cleaning   b. cleaned     c. clean   d. cleans

Answer: 

• A (clean – simple present tense)

• B (cleaned – simple past tense)

FAQs

Is Clean An Irregular Verb?

No. Clean is a regular verb. Its past tense and past participle are lookalikes as “cleaned”.

What Is Clean Past Participle?

Clean past participle is cleaned.

Is Clean A Verb?

Yes, it is a verb. Hing on the context, clean can be an intransitive or transitive verb.

Beyond that, it can also play as a noun or adjective in a sentence.

The Past Tense Of Clean: Clean Or Cleaned?

The correct answer is “cleaned”. To explain, clean is a regular verb. You just need to add -ed after the base form of “clean” when using this verb in the past tense.