Past tense of break
irregular verb
The past tense of break is broke. The past participle is broken.
Forms of break
| Base form (V1) | break /bɹeɪk/ |
|---|---|
| Past tense (V2) | broke /ˈbɹəʊ̯k/ |
| Past participle (V3) | broken /ˈbɹəʊ.kn̩/ |
| Present participle | breaking /ˈbɹeɪkɪŋ/ |
| Third person singular | breaks /bɹeɪks/ |
Broke and broken in a sentence
- His ribs broke under the weight of the rocks piled on his chest.
- He slipped on the ice and broke his leg.
- This counterfeit watch looks like the real thing, but it broke a week after I bought it.From the entry counterfeit
- After we broke up, I retreated to my room for a good cry.From the entry cry
- He corked his bat, which was discovered when it broke, causing a controversy.From the entry cork
Meaning of break
- verb To separate into two or more pieces, to fracture or crack, by a process that cannot easily be reversed for reassembly.
- verb To crack or fracture (bone) under a physical strain.
- verb To make the first shot; to scatter the balls from the initial neat arrangement.
Verbs like break
Questions about the past tense of break
- What is the past tense of break?
- The past tense of break is broke.
- What is the past participle of break?
- The past participle of break is broken.
- Is break a regular or irregular verb?
- Break is an irregular verb: its past tense is not formed with -ed.
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: break (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 break.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/past-tense/break. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.