Past Tense of Seek | Explanation & Examples
Seek, meaning “look for, search,” is an irregular verb, so it doesn’t follow the regular conjugation of adding “-ed” for the past tense. Instead, it changes to sought for both the simple past and past participle.
Seek followed by the infinitive of another verb can also mean “try” or “attempt.” The past tenses are the same (e.g., “Caitlin had sought to please everyone and had triumphed!”).
Although Sean had sought solutions to his computer problems, they had defeated him.
Every year, the top-selling toy had been sought by parents desperate to please their children.
Past tense of seek
The simple past of seek is sought. It rhymes with other verbs with the same ending, like “bought” and “brought.”
Life had taught Celina that when you sought something with determination, you usually found it.
The class sought the answers in all the usual places, which was exactly what the teacher expected.
Past participle of seek
The past participle of seek is also sought. It is used to form the perfect tenses and the passive voice.
I suspected that Bill would have sought the most elegant answer to the problem, and I was right.
Inner peace has been sought by mystics and philosophers since the dawn of time.
Frequently asked questions about the past tense of seek
- Is seeked a word?
-
Seeked is not a word in standard English. Because seek is an irregular verb, it doesn’t follow the pattern of adding “-ed” to the infinitive to form the past tense.
The simple past and past participle of seek are both sought.
- Where they seeked, they found.
- Where they sought, they found.
- Vanya had seeked to finish on time but failed.
- Vanya had sought to finish on time but failed.
You can use the QuillBot Grammar Checker to make sure you’re using the correct form of seek.
- Is soughted a word?
-
Soughted is not a word in English. The verb seek has the past tense form and past participle sought. “Soughted” is a mistaken attempt to add “-ed” (i.e., the way regular verbs form the past tense) to a verb that is already in the past tense form.
- Deanne soughted to please everyone.
- Deanne sought to please everyone.
The QuillBot Grammar Checker will help you check the past tense of seek and every other verb.
- Is it seeked or sought?
-
Seeked is not a word in standard English. Regular verbs in English form the past tense and past participle by adding “-ed” to the infinitive. Seek is an irregular verb and instead uses the form sought for both the past tense and past participle.
- I seeked to find a quick way out of the situation.
- I sought to find a quick way out of the situation.
The QuillBot Grammar Checker is a great way to check if you have the correct form of any word.
