Past tense of commence
regular verb
The past tense of commence is commenced. The past participle is also commenced.
Forms of commence
| Base form (V1) | commence /kəˈmɛns/ |
|---|---|
| Past tense (V2) | commenced /kəˈmɛnst/ |
| Past participle (V3) | commenced /kəˈmɛnst/ |
| Present participle | commencing |
| Third person singular | commences |
Commenced in a sentence
- Then he commenced to talk, really talk. and inside of two flaps of a herring's fin he had me mesmerized, like Eben Holt's boy at the town hall show.1913, Joseph C[rosby] Lincoln, chapter IV, in Mr. Pratt’s Patients, New York, N.Y.; London: D[aniel] Appleton and Company, →OCLC
- The speeches commenced three days of workshops, seminars, and cultural activities.1976 December 11, Thom Willenbecher, quoting Jean O'Leary, “Women's Caucus Quits Gay Academic Union”, in Gay Community News, volume 4...
- She and her group did not disperse even after the katha had commenced.2015, Tridip Suhrud, translating Govardhanram Madhavram Tripathi, Sarasvatichandra I, Orient BlackSwan 2015, p. 300. From the entry katha
- Many mothers sever the strings with apparent ambivalence, and this feat is not commenced with ease.1971, Harry F. Harlow, James L. McGaugh, Richard F. Thompson, chapter 3, in Psychology, San Francisco: Albion, page 52. From the entry separational
- But it was a different matter altogether when the blasting of the tunnel was commenced.1960 December, Voyageur, “The Mountain Railways of the Bernese Oberland”, in Trains Illustrated, page 754. From the entry blasting
Meaning of commence
- verb To begin, start.
- verb To begin or start.
- verb To begin to be, or to act as.
Questions about the past tense of commence
- What is the past tense of commence?
- The past tense of commence is commenced.
- What is the past participle of commence?
- The past participle of commence is commenced.
- Is commence a regular or irregular verb?
- Commence is a regular verb: its past tense adds -d.
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: commence (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 commence.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/past-tense/commence. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.