The Quick Answer
What is the difference between past and passed?
Passed is the past tense of to pass. For everything else, use past.
Past or Passed?
There is often confusion over the words passed and past. This confusion occurs most commonly with the following expressions:
- Passed away
- Passed a test
- Past a date
- Past sell by date
- Past caring
- Past few years
- Past midnight
- The past weekend
- Run past
- See past
Confusion arises because both versions are sometimes possible:
- It is past the deadline.
- You have passed the deadline.
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