Past Tense of Hear | Meaning & Examples
The simple past tense of hear is “heard” (e.g., “I heard a strange noise in the night”). The past participle of “hear” is also “heard” (e.g. “Have you heard the news?).
If you’ve heard from someone, it means they have contacted you. If you’ve heard of something or someone, it means you are aware of it or them.
| Simple past tense form | Past participle form |
|---|---|
| I heard from Serena last week; she sent me a nice email. | I haven’t heard from Serena in a long time. |
| I heard what you said, but I didn’t understand it. | I’d never heard of geocaching before my daughter told me about it. |
Hear past tense
The verb hear is irregular, and you don’t make its simple past tense or past participle forms by adding “-ed” to the infinitive form.
“Heard” is the simple past and past participle form of “hear.”
| Grammatical form | Example in a sentence |
|---|---|
| Simple past tense | Well, I heard that he was getting married. |
| Present perfect tense | Have you heard that he’s getting married? |
| Past perfect tense | Yes, I’d heard that he was getting married. |
| Passive voice | I said what I thought, but I didn’t feel I was being heard. |
| Modal verb + auxiliary verb “have” | She must have heard from someone that he’s getting married. |
*Heared
The simple past and past participle form of the verb “hear” is “heard,” not heared (e.g., “I heard the news yesterday,” “Have you heard about her new album?”).
“Hear” is an irregular verb that follows the same conjunction pattern as the irregular verbs “bring,” “lead,” “lend,” “seek,” “teach,” “think,” and “catch.”
Frequently asked questions about the past tense of hear
- What is the past participle of hear?
-
The past participle of hear is “heard” (e.g., “Have you heard about her new film?,” “I hadn’t heard about that,” “The case was heard last week”).
The simple past tense of hear is also “heard” (e.g., “The court heard the case last week”)
QuillBot’s free Grammar Checker will help you to avoid mistakes with irregular verbs like “hear” in your writing.
- Is it heard or herd?
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The simple past tense of hear is heard, not herd (e.g., “Yes, I heard the news last week”).
The past participle of “hear” is also “heard” (e.g, “Yes, I’ve heard the news).
You can use QuillBot’s free Grammar Checker to help you pick up errors with irregular verbs like “hear” in your writing.
