Past tense of founder
regular verb
The past tense of founder is foundered. The past participle is also foundered.
Forms of founder
| Base form (V1) | founder /ˈfaʊndəɹ/ |
|---|---|
| Past tense (V2) | foundered |
| Past participle (V3) | foundered |
| Present participle | foundering |
| Third person singular | founders /ˈfaʊndəɹz/ |
Foundered in a sentence
- The previous attempts foundered when they tried to take this gendarme directly.1979, Chris Jones, Climbing in North America, →ISBN, page 118. From the entry gendarme
- So when the ship foundered she did not know it, and if any unmurdered hands and passengers escaped, she didn’t know that either.2008, Toni Morrison, A Mercy, Chatto & Windus, page 115. From the entry unmurdered
- It happened one year, early in the last century, when a doghole schooner foundered , and the poor young man was drowned along with several sailors.2017, M Dressler, The Last to See Me. From the entry doghole
- So when the Roman Empire declined, foundered and fell, the wine trade continued the best it could, supplying the needs of the vinous Vandal and gambrinous Goth.2017, Mark Forsyth, A Short History of Drunkenness, Penguin Books Limited, →ISBN. From the entry gambrinous
- Soon after he ascended the throne, an Arabic television joint venture between the BBC and a Saudi concern, Orbit Communications, foundered over the BBC’s insistence on editorial independence.2001 November 18, Fouad Ajami, “What the Muslim World Is Watching”, in The New York Times, archived from the original on 31 Aug 2019…. From the entry concern
Meaning of founder
- noun One who founds or establishes (a company, project, organisation, state, etc.).
- noun A common ancestor of some population (especially one with a certain genetic mutation).
- noun The iron worker in charge of the blast furnace and the smelting operation.
Questions about the past tense of founder
- What is the past tense of founder?
- The past tense of founder is foundered.
- What is the past participle of founder?
- The past participle of founder is foundered.
- Is founder a regular or irregular verb?
- Founder is a regular verb: its past tense adds -ed.
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: founder (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 founder.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/past-tense/founder. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.