What is The Past Tense of Meet

The word “meet” is a common and useful verb, which can broadly be divided into three related meanings, the first of which is to do with coming into the presence of another person, or alternatively two or more objects coming into contact with each other or joining together. The third meaning is to satisfy requirements.

The past tense of “meet” is “met.”

What is the past tense of “meet”?

Meet (verb):

(1) Come into company with someone either by chance or by prior arrangement

(2) Touch, join, come into contact with

(3) Satisfy (difficulty, requirements or standards)

• Infinitive           –         to meet
• Simple Past    –           met
• Past Participle –           met

Conjugation Table of “meet”

Pronoun	Infinitive	Simple Past	Present Perfect	Present Continuous
I	meet	met	have met	am meeting
You (sing.)	meet	met	have met	are meeting
He/She/It	meets	met	has met	is meeting
We	meet	met	have met	are meeting
You (pl.)	meet	met	have met	are meeting
They	meet	met	have met	are meeting

Example Sentences of “meet”

(1) Come into company with someone either by chance or by prior arrangement

• She met an old school friend for lunch
• You’ll never guess who I met randomly in the street the other day!
• What time shall we meet?

(2) Touch, join, come into contact with

• When the north and south ends of two magnets meet, there is a strong attractive force
• Our town lies where the River Thames meets the sea
• When her hand met his, there was instant electricity and romantic tension

(3) Satisfy (difficulty, requirements or standards)

• It was a difficult task, but we were able to meet the challenge
• He met all the needs of becoming a competent teacher

Focus: Past Tense of Meet

Here are some further examples of how you can use “meet” in its various past tense forms, starting with simple past tense and working towards past perfect. All of the following forms will be used:

• Simple past
• Present perfect
• Past continuous
• Past perfect

Simple Past of “meet”

• We first met while we were both studying at Harvard
• I met him for lunch to discuss the business plan, and I wasn’t impressed
• As soon as the potassium met the water’s surface, it started to fizzle and spark

Present Perfect of “meet”

• Oh, yes, we have met before, last year at the conference
• They have met the entry requirements for our university, but it’s still not possible to make them an admissions offer
• You have met some serious difficulties in your career, is that right?

Past Continuous of “meet”

• We were meeting to discuss the new marketing strategy, but all he talked about was social media
• I was meeting with Henry yesterday when he suddenly had a heart attack
• They weren’t meeting the standards as required by the company leadership, so they were fired

Past Perfect of “meet”

• He had met him several times before, so he wasn’t nervous about meeting him this time
• We had met to discuss a business matter, but instead we started reminiscing about old times

Understanding the Verb “Meet”

“Meet,” derived from Old English “mētan,” refers to encountering someone or something, whether planned or by chance

Phrasal Verbs with “Meet”

1. Meet up: To come together with someone, typically in a social context.
   • We plan to meet up for coffee later.
   • The old friends met up after years of being apart.
2. Meet with: To have an appointment or planned interaction.
   • She will meet with the director tomorrow.
   • I need to meet with my advisor about my course schedule.
3. Meet out: To deliver or distribute something.
   • Justice will be meted out accordingly.
   • He meted out punishment as he saw fit.

Common Mistakes with “Meet”

• Incorrect: I have meeted him before.
• Correct: I have met him before.

• Incorrect: She meets with her friends yesterday.
• Correct: She met with her friends yesterday.

Other Past tense articles and resources are found throughout the site. The table below give you the reference guide to past tense articles, but we also have past tense worksheets and articles to help you either practice or learn more about both regular and irregular past tenses in English.

You can check other past tense words by clicking on the links in the table below.

Table 2: Table of Links for irregular Past Tense Verbs

bend	meet	copy	beat
lay	draw	buy	Fly
Drink	Think	wear	dive
rise	dream	Speak	bite
bear	begin	freeze	sink
get	give	take	sing
learn	keep	find	be
say	catch	eat	come
go	know	do	cut
drive	fall	let	make
pay	read	build	become

We also have articles and worksheets which we will link examples of below, and if you need more you can try the search box.

• Free Simple Past Tense Worksheets
• irregular verb list
• Simple Present Tense Worksheets
• Regular and irregular past tense worksheets
• Free online past tense games.
• Present perfect tense worksheets
• Simple Future tense worksheets
• Simple Past tense ‘ed’ ending rules and handouts

Conclusion

We are working through many of the irregular past tense terms and you can access them in the table above. We may get to them all but it will take some time so bear with us

We also have a full list of irregular verbs from A – Z on the site which you can access from the link here.