Past Tense of Shake | Examples & Meaning
The simple past tense of shake is “shook” (e.g., “She shook the tree until a few apples fell to the ground”). The past participle of “shake” is “shaken” (e.g., “Have you shaken me a cocktail too?”).
| Simple past tense | Past participle |
|---|---|
| I shook the bottle before I sprayed it this time. | I’ve shaken the bottle for two minutes, like it says in the instructions. |
| The leaders of the country shook hands for the cameras. | It was the first time that leaders of the two countries had shaken hands for almost 40 years. |
Shook meaning
“Shook” is the past simple form of the irregular verb “shake.”
She asked the boys outside the store if they had seen her brother, but they shook their heads in reply.
Shaken or shook
The standard past participle of the verb “shake” is shaken, not shook (e.g., “The whole community was shaken by the tragedy”).
- “Everyone in the community was deeply shook by the events.”
It’s often used like this as part of the phrasal verb “shake up.”
- “People in the town are still clearly shook up by last week’s events.”
Similarly, shook has become slang for “astonished” or “surprised,” especially in online interaction.
- OMG, that ending to the movie had me totally shook!
- I’m shook that you could say such a thing!
In formal contexts such as essays, it’s best to use the standard dictionary form of the past participle, “shaken.”
- “People are still clearly very shaken (up) by what happened.”
- “People are still clearly very shook (up) by what happened.”
*Shaked
The word shaked is not a standard form of the verb “shake.”
The standard past simple form of “shake” is “shook” (e.g., “The crack of lightning was so loud that the windows shook”), and the standard past participle form of “shake” is “shaken” (e.g., “His sense of trust has been badly shaken”).
Shaked may be used as a past tense and past participle form of the verb “shake” in some local dialects of English.
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Citation
Reasoning
Frequently asked questions about the past tense of shake
- Is it shooken or shaken?
-
It is shaken, not shooken.
The standard past participle of the verb “shake” is “shaken” (e.g., “The community has been shaken by the news that the factory will close next year,” or “People are very shaken by the news”).
The standard past tense of shake is “shook” (e.g., “I followed the instructions and shook the bottle first”).
Tools like QuillBot’s free Grammar Checker will help you to pick up errors like “shooken” instead of “shaken” in your writing.
- What does shooken up mean?
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Shooken up is a non-standard past participle form of the phrasal verb “shake up.” The standard form is shaken up.
If you feel “shaken up,” you feel “shocked” or “upset” (e.g., “It was only a minor accident, but I was still shaken up”). When “shaken up” is used like an adjective in passive constructions like this in informal contexts, “shook” is sometimes used as an alternative past participle form (e.g., “I was a bit shook up at first”).
QuillBot’s free Grammar Checker will help you to pick up errors like “shooken up” instead of “shaken up” in your writing.
- What does shaken not stirred mean?
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Shaken not stirred or “shaken but not stirred” is a catchphrase of the fictional spy James Bond. This is what Ian Fleming’s character says to specify how he would like his martini cocktail prepared.
The phrase “shaken but not stirred” can also mean “superficially but not fundamentally affected by a negative experience” (e.g., “The company’s message at the press conference was that it has been shaken, but not stirred, by the outcome of the antitrust case”).
“Shaken” is the past participle of “shake.” The past tense of shake is “shook.”
QuillBot’s free Grammar Checker will help you to use tricky irregular verbs like “shake” correctly in your writing.
- What does shooketh mean?
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Shooketh is a humorous slang alternative to the word “shaken” (the past participle of the verb “shake”) associated with the comedian Christine Sydelko. It is used to express shock or surprise in a sarcastic or ironic way (e.g., “Wow, really? I didn’t know that; I am shooketh”).
The standard past participle of “shake” is “shaken.” The standard past tense of shake is “shook.”
QuillBot’s free Grammar Checker will help you check your writing for errors with tricky irregular verbs like “shake.”
