Past tense of prevent
regular verb
The past tense of prevent is prevented. The past participle is also prevented.
Forms of prevent
| Base form (V1) | prevent /pɹɪˈvɛnt/ |
|---|---|
| Past tense (V2) | prevented /pɹɪˈvɛntɪd/ |
| Past participle (V3) | prevented /pɹɪˈvɛntɪd/ |
| Present participle | preventing /pɹɪˈvɛntɪŋ/ |
| Third person singular | prevents |
Prevented in a sentence
- His timidness prevented him from challenging authority or asking his boss for a raise.From the entry timidness
- During the era of slavery, Southern antiliteracy laws prevented black people from learning to read.From the entry antiliteracy
- A closed and locked door prevented my escape.From the entry closed
- His lameness may have prevented him from walking but it didn't stop him from running for public office.From the entry lameness
- The snake's paralyzing venom prevented the mouse from escaping.From the entry paralyzing
Meaning of prevent
- verb To stop (an outcome); to keep from (doing something).
- verb To take preventative measures.
- verb To come before; to precede.
Questions about the past tense of prevent
- What is the past tense of prevent?
- The past tense of prevent is prevented.
- What is the past participle of prevent?
- The past participle of prevent is prevented.
- Is prevent a regular or irregular verb?
- Prevent is a regular verb: its past tense adds -ed.
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: prevent (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 prevent.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/past-tense/prevent. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.