past
/pɑ:st/
Học thuậtThân thiện
Definition
Adjective:
- No longer current; belonging to a time before the present: Describes something that has already happened or existed.
- Former; having held a position or office previously: Describes a person who is no longer in a specific role.
- (Grammar) Expressing a past action or state: Used to describe verb forms.
Noun:
- The time before the present: All events and experiences that have already happened.
- A person's earlier life or history: The events of someone's life before the present, sometimes implying a secret history.
- (Grammar) The past tense: The form of a verb used to describe past actions.
Adverb:
- So as to go by or beyond a point: Indicates movement from one side to the other of a reference point.
Preposition:
- Beyond in time; later than: Used to indicate a time after a specific hour or age.
- Beyond in place; on the other side of: Used to indicate movement or location from one side to the other of an object.
- Beyond the scope, capacity, or limits of: Used to indicate something exceeding a normal boundary.
Examples of Usage
Adjective:
- Past events shape who we are. (Events that are no longer current.)
- She is a past president of the club. (A former president.)
- In the sentence "I walked," "walked" is a past tense verb. (A verb form expressing a past action.)
Noun:
- We should learn from the past. (The time before the present.)
- He has a mysterious past. (His earlier life/history.)
- In English, the simple past is often formed with "-ed". (The past tense.)
Adverb:
- The car drove past without stopping. (It went by a point.)
Preposition:
- It is half past three. (Later than three o'clock.)
- The library is just past the post office. (On the other side of the post office.)
- His rude behavior is past understanding. (Beyond the limits of understanding.)
Advanced Usage
- "A thing of the past": Something that no longer exists or happens.
- With smartphones, payphones are a thing of the past.
- "Live in the past": To be overly focused on former times and not adapt to the present.
- He still talks about his high school glory days; he needs to stop living in the past.
Variants and Related Words
- Past participle (n): A verb form (often ending in -ed, -en, -d, -t) used in perfect tenses and the passive voice (e.g., , , ).
- Past tense (n): The grammatical tense that places an action or state in the past (e.g., , , ).
- Past perfect (n): A verb tense used to show an action was completed before another past action (e.g., ).
Synonyms
- (Adj/Noun): Bygone, former, previous, earlier, ancient, history, yesterday.
- (Adv/Prep): Beyond, by, after.
Related Phrasal Verbs
(Note: "Past" is primarily a preposition/adverb and does not commonly form phrasal verbs with verbs in the same way as particles like "up" or "out." Its use is more direct.) * Go past / Walk past / Drive past: To move beyond a location. * Go past the school and turn left.
Related Idioms
- Past it: (Informal) Too old to be effective or capable.
- Some people think he's past it, but he still runs marathons.
- I wouldn't put it past someone (to do something): I believe someone is capable of doing something (often something bad or surprising).
- He's so competitive, I wouldn't put it past him to cheat.
- Past master: An expert in a particular activity.
- She is a past master at negotiating deals.
Adjective
- of a person who has held and relinquished a position or office
- a retiring member of the board
- earlier than the present time; no longer current
- time past
- his youth is past
- this past Thursday
- the past year
Adverb
- so as to pass a given point
- every hour a train goes past
Noun
- a verb tense that expresses actions or states in the past
- a earlier period in someone's life (especially one that they have reason to keep secret)
- reporters dug into the candidate's past
- the time that has elapsed
- forget the past