Past tense of catch
irregular verb
The past tense of catch is caught. The past participle is also caught.
Forms of catch
| Base form (V1) | catch /kæt͡ʃ/ |
|---|---|
| Past tense (V2) | caught /kɔːt/ |
| Past participle (V3) | caught /kɔːt/ |
| Present participle | catching /ˈkæt͡ʃɪŋ/ |
| Third person singular | catches |
Less standard forms: catched (nonstandard).
Caught in a sentence
- He ran but we caught him at the exit.
- The police caught the robber at a nearby casino.
- Johnny's not doing so well today, I think he caught the epizootic.From the entry epizootic
- They caught him with a stolen horse, and he wound up in the pen again.From the entry pen
- The students were caught egging the principal’s car as a prank.From the entry egg
Meaning of catch
- noun The act of seizing or capturing.
- noun The act of catching an object in motion, especially a ball.
- noun The act of noticing, understanding or hearing.
Verbs like catch
Questions about the past tense of catch
- What is the past tense of catch?
- The past tense of catch is caught.
- What is the past participle of catch?
- The past participle of catch is caught.
- Is catch a regular or irregular verb?
- Catch is an irregular verb: its past tense is not formed with -ed.
- Is catched correct?
- catched is marked nonstandard in Wiktionary. The usual past tense of catch is caught.
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: catch (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.
Last updated:
Cite this page: “Past tense of catch.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/past-tense/catch. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.