Past tense of sail
regular verb
The past tense of sail is sailed. The past participle is also sailed.
Forms of sail
| Base form (V1) | sail /seɪl/ |
|---|---|
| Past tense (V2) | sailed /seɪld/ |
| Past participle (V3) | sailed /seɪld/ |
| Present participle | sailing /ˈseɪ.lɪŋ/ |
| Third person singular | sails /seɪlz/ |
Sailed in a sentence
- A hopeful ball from Forest right-back Brendan Moloney to the left edge of the area was met first by Ruddy but his attempted clearance rebounded off Tyson's leg and sailed in.2011 April 15, Saj Chowdhury, “Norwich 2 - 1 Nott'm Forest”, in BBC Sport
- The duchess sailed haughtily out of the room.
- They pirated the tanker and sailed to a port where they could sell the ship and cargo.From the entry pirate
- We sailed up the East Coast of England from Ipswich to South Shields.From the entry up
- We sailed full and by for quite a while before getting down to serious navigation.From the entry full and by
Meaning of sail
- noun A piece of fabric attached to a boat and arranged such that it causes the wind to drive the boat along. The sail may be attached to the boat via a combination of mast, spars and ropes.
- noun The concept of a sail or sails, as if a substance.
- noun The power harnessed by a sail or sails, or the use of this power for travel or transport.
Questions about the past tense of sail
- What is the past tense of sail?
- The past tense of sail is sailed.
- What is the past participle of sail?
- The past participle of sail is sailed.
- Is sail a regular or irregular verb?
- Sail is a regular verb: its past tense adds -ed.
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: sail (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 sail.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/past-tense/sail. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.