Past tense of fail
regular verb
The past tense of fail is failed. The past participle is also failed.
Forms of fail
| Base form (V1) | fail /feɪl/ |
|---|---|
| Past tense (V2) | failed /feɪld/ |
| Past participle (V3) | failed /feɪld/ |
| Present participle | failing /ˈfeɪ.lɪŋ/ |
| Third person singular | fails /feɪlz/ |
Failed in a sentence
- Throughout my life, I have always failed.
- The truck failed to start.
- The five ball angled off the nine ball but failed to reach the pocket.From the entry angle
- After a failed connection attempt, the program sleeps for 5 seconds before trying again.From the entry sleep
- They failed to respect the treaty they had signed, and invaded.From the entry respect
Meaning of fail
- verb To be unsuccessful.
- verb Not to achieve a particular stated goal. (Usage note: The direct object of this word is usually an infinitive.).
- verb To neglect.
Questions about the past tense of fail
- What is the past tense of fail?
- The past tense of fail is failed.
- What is the past participle of fail?
- The past participle of fail is failed.
- Is fail a regular or irregular verb?
- Fail is a regular verb: its past tense adds -ed.
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: fail (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 fail.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/past-tense/fail. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.