- Home/
- SSC & Railways/
- Article
What is the past tense of “read”?
By BYJU'S Exam Prep
Updated on: September 25th, 2023

People often get confused between the present and past tense of the verb “read”. This is because the past tense of the word is “read”, which is a different word with a different meaning and pronunciation but with the same spelling.
Table of content
“Read” as a past tense is pronounced as red as in the colour of an apple. The verb “read” has an irregular past form because it doesn’t accept the suffixes “-ed” or “d”. It is one of the 157 irregular verbs in the English language. Furthermore, the past participle and past tense of the verb “read” is the same.
Let’s try to understand the verb and its usage with the help of some examples:
Present tense – I read the newspaper daily.
Past tense – I read a short story yesterday.
Future tense – The students will finish the book this week.
Summary:
The past tense of “read”
The past tense of the verb “read” is spelled exactly the same but has a different meaning. It is pronounced as “red” and does not accept any additions like “-ed” or “-d” as it is an irregular verb.