Past tense of complain
regular verb
The past tense of complain is complained. The past participle is also complained.
Forms of complain
| Base form (V1) | complain /kəmˈpleɪn/ |
|---|---|
| Past tense (V2) | complained /kəmˈpleɪnd/ |
| Past participle (V3) | complained /kəmˈpleɪnd/ |
| Present participle | complaining /kəmˈpleɪn.ɪŋ/ |
| Third person singular | complains /kəmˈpleɪnz/ |
Complained in a sentence
- The patient complained of headache, nausea, and joint pain.
- They've complained about me to the police again.
- They complained that their rules of engagement were handcuffs that guaranteed counterproductivity.From the entry handcuffs
- Due to her aversion to the outdoors she complained throughout the entire camping trip.From the entry aversion
- Although the elderly man felt mounting pain from his illness, he never complained or puled.From the entry pule
Meaning of complain
- verb To express feelings of pain, dissatisfaction, or resentment.
- verb To state the presence of something negative; to indicate that one is suffering from something; to report (e.g.) a symptom.
- verb To make a formal accusation or bring a formal charge.
Questions about the past tense of complain
- What is the past tense of complain?
- The past tense of complain is complained.
- What is the past participle of complain?
- The past participle of complain is complained.
- Is complain a regular or irregular verb?
- Complain is a regular verb: its past tense adds -ed.
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: complain (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 complain.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/past-tense/complain. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.