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The past tense of “read” is “read” or “readed ?

I have seen both "read" and "readed" used to refer to the past tense of the verb "read." As English is not my native language, I would like to clarify which form is correct. Thank you!

10 Answers

T
Trisha Kozey

Jan 05, 2025

Read red red (In pronounsation)

Read Read Read in written

:

A
Anonymous

Nov 29, 2024

Read. "Readed" isn't a word.

When you are talking about the present tense, you pronounce "read" like "reed". When you are talking about past tense, "read" is pronounced "red".

Don''t blame me - I didn't invent the English language. Sensible languages, like German, don't have two words that are spelled different but pronounced the same, and words that are spelled the same but pronounced differently. Just my $.02 worth, and I'm a native speaker.

PS: Then again, in German you can't have a type of humor we call "play on words". You have one of these words that is pronounced the same but has two different meanings, perhaps even two different spellings. Initially in the joke, you are lead to assume (from the context of the sentence) that you are saying one word, however, the punch line makes it clear that the other word was what was meant.

Sorry, this works a lot better spoken than it does typed:

Question: What's black and white and read/red all over?

Answer: A newspaper.

See, because of the mention of colors black and white, you assume it is the color "red". But the answer reveals that the word is "read", past tense of "read". A newspaper is black and white. People also read newspapers in various places (i.e. "all over"). You can't have this type of humor unless you have two different words that are pronounced the same.

K
Korey Lang

Feb 18, 2025

If you ever saw "readed" you saw someone else use a word that really doesn't exist.

"Read" is a rare irregular verb in which the present, past, and participle forms are all written the same way (though pronounced differently.)

Read - present tense, pronounced to rhyme with "reed" like a tall plant that grows in marshes.

Read - past tense, pronounced to rhyme with "red" like the color.

Read - past participle, pronounced "red"

"Readed" is not an accepted word.

A
Anonymous

Feb 14, 2025

"Readed" is not a word. Read is the correct past-tense form of read, although it is pronounced differently.

The past tense of "read" is "read", but you pronounce it differently.

A
Anonymous

Dec 04, 2024

Read is the word.

It is just a part of the unusual structure of the English language. They say, English is one of the hardest languages to lean because of this fact. There are lots of weird anomalies in English.

J
Jorge Koss

Jan 23, 2025

This is one of the most confusing things in all the thoroughly messed up relationship in English between spelling and pronunciation.

(1) The present tense of this verb is spelled "Read" and pronounced "reed" (a noun meaning a type of wild grass).

(2) The past tense and the past participle are also both spelled "read" but pronounced "red" (supposedly to distinguish them from the adjective, "red", used for a colour at the longwave end of the visible spectrum)..

(3) There is a similar verb "lead" whose past is both spelled and pronounced "led", but in this case we have a noun "lead" with the same spelling but pronounced "led" which is the name of a common malleable metal.

(4) To add to all the confusion, English has "heed", spelled as it is pronounced, a verb meaning "to pay attention, and whose past tense is the regular "heeded" but which it is easy to confuse with "head" (as a noun, the top of something, as a verb to be in charge or or to hit with the forehead), which is pronounced "hed", and has the regular past tense "headed"--pronounced "hedded".

(5) "Read" originally meant to advise someone or prepare something (as its cognates in other German languages still do), whence we have the adjective "ready" (meaning prepared) with the same pronunciation as "reddy" meaning "tinged with the colour red". At the end of the first millenium England had a king called Edward the Unready, meaning "ill advised" which is nowadays always misunderstood for "not prepared."

(6) After all that, I have to mention the city of Reading, the historic county town of Berkshire, written as if it were the present participle of the verb "to read" but pronounced "redding"--whence the joke about its public library's annual report said to have been entitled "reading in Reading" (pronounced "reeding in redding.").

(7) And just in case you have been taught that etymology can explain all the anomalies of English orthography, please note that, on strictly etymological grounds, "red" should have been read (EA corresponds historically to the primitive Germanic dipthong AU), while "read" should have been red (E generally corresponds to the primitive Germanic long vowel A).

(8) Finally, while "reeded" exists and means "supplied with reeds", as does "leaded" (meaning "with lead as an addititve"), I have yet to meet your supposed past tense *readed" and would dearly like to know where you came across it.

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