Past tense of expect
regular verb
The past tense of expect is expected. The past participle is also expected.
Forms of expect
| Base form (V1) | expect /ɪkˈspɛkt/ |
|---|---|
| Past tense (V2) | expected /ɪkˈspɛk.tɪd/ |
| Past participle (V3) | expected /ɪkˈspɛk.tɪd/ |
| Present participle | expecting /ɪkˈspɛktɪŋ/ |
| Third person singular | expects |
Expected in a sentence
- The hostage is expected to be released later today.
- And temperatures are expected to keep rising.2018, VOA Learning English > China's Melting Glacier Brings Visitors, Adds to Climate Concerns
- We are expected to be there at six o'clock in the morning!From the entry o'clock
- He can hack like no one else and make the program work as expected.From the entry hack
- Orders were reported to have increased 2% monthly, ahead of the 1.2% expected by the street.From the entry street
Meaning of expect
- verb To predict or believe that something will happen.
- verb To consider obligatory or required.
- verb To consider reasonably due.
Questions about the past tense of expect
- What is the past tense of expect?
- The past tense of expect is expected.
- What is the past participle of expect?
- The past participle of expect is expected.
- Is expect a regular or irregular verb?
- Expect is a regular verb: its past tense adds -ed.
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: expect (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 expect.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/past-tense/expect. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.