Young Writers Society

I'm constantly getting confused with this one, which is weird since i'm usually pretty good with these types of things.

Which is the correct one to use in this sentence:

Which is where I’d stayed for the passed/past two hours.

Please help.

Kadie x

I'd use 'past.'

Isn't 'passed' or 'I passed the test,' 'she passed on,' 'he passed me the butter?' And 'past' is for time related subjects?

Or it could be British/American spelling, *Shrugs*

~JFW1415

Past = time.
Passed = past tense of "pass"

That should help.

-:pirate3:

As Saint Razorblade correctly says, "pass" is the past tense or the past participle of the verb "to pass":

Having passed the shop, he approached the school.
Time passed slowly.

"Past", on the other hand, implies "previous", "having existed/occurred at an earlier time", "no longer occurring", or "time elapsed":

He has helped us very much this past year. (i.e. "This previous year")
In the past, servants were commonplace.
His past history is unknown.
Prince Charles is a past student of Cheam School. (i.e. He used to be a student, but is no longer one.)

"Past" can also function as a preposition:

Past the river lay the castle.
He is past the point of no return.
It is half past two.

Or as an adverb:

As he ran past, he could see the forest.

(Incidentally, as Answers.com says, "past" derives from the Middle English past participle of "passen," meaning "to pass.")

Hope this helps.

Gahks

Thanks for the help everyone.

So am i right in thinking that 'past' is the right word to use in the example in the first post?

I just get confused, because in the example it's talking about time, but it's about time that has 'passed'.

Grr.

Kadie x

hah, all these answers and nothing was helpful.

try replacing the word with a different word, so for "passed" we'll put "overtook", and for "past" we'll put "previous"

so "Which is where I’d stayed for the passed/past two hours." becomes "Which is where I’d stayed for the overtook/previous two hours."

Which one makes more sense? I would guess "Which is where I'd stayed for the previous two hours", in which case you'd use "past".

kf

Lol, yeah.

I've completely reworded it so it doesn't matter anymore, but i'm bound to get confused again in the future.

Kadie x