Word.ws English Dictionary

Past tense of become

irregular verb

The past tense of become is became. The past participle is become.

Forms of become

Base form (V1)become /bɪˈkʌm/
Past tense (V2)became /bɪˈkeɪm/
Past participle (V3)become /bɪˈkʌm/
Present participlebecoming /bɪˈkʌm.ɪŋ/
Third person singularbecomes /bɪˈkʌmz/

Less standard forms: becomen (dialectal).

Became in a sentence

  • She became a doctor when she was 25.
  • Then, as the Sunderland fans' cheers bellowed around the stadium, United's title bid was over when it became apparent City had pinched a last-gasp winner to seal their first title in 44 years.2012 May 13, Alistair Magowan, “Sunderland 0-1 Man Utd”, in BBC Sport
  • Jupiter became the nickname of John Pierpont Morgan in late 19th century finance.From the entry jupiter
  • He became frustrated when his bench increased by only 10 pounds despite a month of training.From the entry bench
  • Sushil never took the advice of his parents, but still became rich.From the entry advice

Meaning of become

  1. verb Begin to be; turn into (often with permanent states).
  2. verb To come about; happen; come into being; arise.
  3. verb To be appropriate for.

Full definition of become

Verbs like become

Questions about the past tense of become

What is the past tense of become?
The past tense of become is became.
What is the past participle of become?
The past participle of become is become.
Is become a regular or irregular verb?
Become is an irregular verb: its past tense is not formed with -ed.
Is becomen correct?
becomen is marked dialectal in Wiktionary. The usual past tense of become is became.

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: become (page history and authors) and the entries of its forms. Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws left out forms marked obsolete, archaic, rare or dialectal and added the examples. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this page: “Past tense of become.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/past-tense/become. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.