What Is The Past Tense Of Mean?
In the English language, the past tense for mean is “meant”. Because this word is an irregular verb, it doesn’t follow the standard rule: adding “ed” at the end. Here are the most common forms of this verb:
| Form | Verb |
| Bare | mean |
| Present participle | meaning |
| Third person singular | means |
| Past | meant |
| Past participle | meant |
Let’s check out this video for more details about “mean”:
How Do You Spell Mean In Past Tense?
Here is the official pronunciation of the irregular past-tense form, according to the IPA:
|
Word (Verb Tense) |
Pronunciation | |
| US |
UK |
|
|
Mean |
/miːn/ |
/miːn/ |
|
Meant |
/mɛnt/ | /mɛnt/ |
| Meant | /mɛnt/ |
/mɛnt/ |
Although it isn’t tricky to spell these words, the pronunciation of “meant” will be completely different to that of “mean”. Remember not to pronounce meant as /miːn/ and add the t ending sound. Instead, the long i in the base form will change to the /ɛ/ sound. “Meant” phonetic spelling will be /ment/.
Definition And How To Use
The word “mean” has differences in meaning. Here are some core verb meanings:
- To represent or express something (thoughts, facts, ideas, etc.).
- Used to make your statement or ideas more emphatic.
- To have a specific result.
- To show how profoundly something/someone affects someone emotionally.
It’d better refer to the examples below to know how to use it in different contexts and in the past situation:
- Although it was not a valuable thing, it still meant a lot to her.
- What did she mean by that comment?
- I said I wanted you home before 11 PM last night. And I meant you had to be at home by that time.
- I ground the beans last week. It meant I got a bottle of ground beans.
- Their ideas meant that almost 6% of the working population was unemployed.
Practice 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.