Past Tense of Draw

The word “draw” is a common verb in English that broadly speaking has two main definitions, namely to produce a picture or diagram by making lines with a pen, pencil or similar instrument, to pull or drag. The second definition can also be used somewhat abstractly to mean conjure or create something, especially conclusions.

We take a look at the verb ‘draw’ and its past tense forms below. We kept it short and sweet so you can just grab the information you need quickly.

What is the past tense of “draw”?

Draw (verb):

(1) Produce a picture or diagram by making lines, especially using a pen, pencil or similar instrument

(2) Pull or drag

• Infinitive                       to draw
• Simple Past                drew
• Past Participle             drawn

Conjugation Table of “draw”

Pronoun	Infinitive	Simple Past	Present Perfect	Present Continuous
I	draw	drew	have drawn	am drawing
You (sing.)	draw	drew	have drawn	are drawing
He/She/It	draws	drew	has drawn	is drawing
We	draw	drew	have drawn	are drawing
You (pl.)	draw	drew	have drawn	are drawing
They	draw	drew	have drawn	are drawing

Example Sentences of “draw”

(1) Produce a picture or diagram by making lines, especially using a pen, pencil or similar instrument

• Amelia drew a picture of her house and family in art class
• Can you draw a diagram showing the process of photosynthesis in plants?
• I drew a sketch of my dog while I was talking on the phone with my mom

(2) Pull or drag

• The villagers regularly draw water from the well
• Two great shire horses drew an enormous carriage through the city center
• When commanding archers, an officer would shout “knock” to instruct archers to prepare arrows, “draw” to instruct them to pull back their bow strings, and “loose” to order them to fire arrows at the enemy
• (Abstract) You shouldn’t draw any conclusion before first studying the facts

Focus: Past Tense of Draw

Below we’ve prepared some more example sentences that use draw in its past tense forms. We will use all of the following forms in our examples:

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

Simple Past of “draw”

• We drew self-portraits in art class today, using pencils only
• He drew two buckets of water from the well to help fight the fire that started in the bakery
• The teacher drew the diagram onto the blackboard so all the students could see it

Present Perfect of “draw”

• It seems we have drawn an unfair conclusion about you, and for that we are sorry
• I have drawn up plans for a new office complex, which is scheduled to start construction next year
• You have always drawn pictures of flowers for as long as I can remember

Past Continuous of “draw”

• You were drawing with Julie by the river yesterday, weren’t you?
• They were drawing me a map so I could find my way there more easily
• I was drawing the sunset when suddenly my phone rang

Past Perfect of “draw”

• He had drawn the conclusion that his students simply didn’t care enough about his class
• The horses had drawn the heavy carriage across the entire landscape by the time the sun finally went down

Understanding the Verb “Draw”

“draw” possesses a broad range of meanings from sketching an image, pulling something, or even extracting a substance.

Phrasal Verbs with “Draw”

1. Draw up: To prepare a document or plan.
   • The lawyer drew up a contract for them to sign.
   • The committee is drawing up a list of nominees.
2. Draw out: To prolong something or make it last longer.
   • She managed to draw out the meeting for another hour.
   • The speaker drew out his speech to cover the time.
3. Draw on: To use something that’s available, like resources or experiences.
   • He drew on his experience as a teacher to write the book.
   • The company is drawing on its reserves to fund the project.

Common Mistakes with “Draw”

• Incorrect: I have drawed a portrait of her.
• Correct: I have drawn a portrait of her.

• Incorrect: The match was drew.
• Correct: The match was drawn.

We are building, eventually, a comprehensive list of as many irregular past tense verbs in English for use as a reference guide. You can see these in the table below on this page. There are hundreds so bear with us as well work through them.

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

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

There is plenty of English that is difficult, and sorry to tell you that past tense is not really one of those, check out some of the difficult poems, or even the use of conditionals to really blow your mind and that’s us just getting started.

However, just to put you at ease, its not that Past tense in English is difficult its that it can be frustrating. While regular past tense can follow a system and rules the irregular verbs can be a law unto themselves ( mostly) This is why we are putting together this series of past tense definitions of verbs with their past tense forms.

So hopefully these tables will help you to cement the irregular past tense, and if not they are hear for a long time so you can refer back or bookmark the pages as you need them.