What Is The Past Tense Of Pet?
The past tense for pet is “petted”. It’s spelled P-E-T-T-E-D. This is a regular verb in the English language.
It will follow the rule of adding “ed” at the end of the word to create the past and past participle form of a verb. For more details about this word’s form, refer to the table below:
Form | Verb |
Bare | pet |
Present participle | petting |
Third person singular | pets |
Past | petted |
Past participle | petted |
Let’s find out more about “petted” and its pronunciation in this video:
How Do You Spell Pet In Past Tense?
You can check the IPA to know how to pronounce it properly:
Form Of Word |
Pronunciation |
|
US |
UK | |
V1: Pet | /pet/ |
/pet/ |
V2: Petted |
/petɪd/ | /petɪd/ |
V3: Petted | /petɪd/ |
/petɪd/ |
The most challenging part of this verb’s pronunciation is the /p/ sound. This is a voiceless sound that means your vocal cords don’t vibrate while speaking. Shutting the lips will temporarily block air from exiting the vocal tract, producing the /p/ sound.
Definition And How To Use
This word has two main meanings:
- If you pet an animal or something, it means you gently move your hand to touch it lovingly and kindly.
- Example: We petted her dogs when visiting her home to show our love with them.
- If two persons are petting, it means they are touching and sexually kissing the other.
- Example: This couple was petting when my phone rang.
If you want to know how to use it, let’s check out more examples:
- They petted the cat yesterday to show her love.
- The king didn’t pet and spoil her like other princesses.
- I petted his adorable puppy yesterday when I came to my friend’s house.
- Anna petted her cute cats last night, but now she cannot find them.
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.