What Is The Past Tense of Bite

The verb “to bite” in English can have a variety of meanings, ranging from a literal sense relating to the action of clamping down on something with one’s teeth or mouth, to a more figurative sense where we use it to describe pain felt at the onset of things like sharp winter winds.

The simple past tense of bite is “bit” while the past participle is “bitten.”

We’ll explore more about this word and its past tense forms below.

What is the past tense of “bite”?

Bite (verb):

(1) Use one’s teeth to cut into something or through something

(2) To deliver sharp (and usually painful) cold

• Infinitive                     to bite
• Simple Past                bit
• Past Participle             bitten

Conjugation Table of “bite”

Pronoun	Infinitive	Simple Past	Present Perfect	Present Continuous
I	bite	bit	have bitten	am biting
You (sing.)	bite	bit	have bitten	are biting
He/She/It	bites	bit	has bitten	is biting
We	bite	bit	have bitten	are biting
You (pl.)	bite	bit	have bitten	are biting
They	bite	bit	have bitten	are biting

Example Sentences of “bite”

(1) Use one’s teeth to cut into something or through something

• He bit hungrily and eagerly into a delicious sandwich
• Wait for the fish to bite before you start reeling them in
• Children often go through a period where they are likely to bite parents, caregivers or even their peers, but it’s quite normal.

(2) To deliver sharp (and usually painful) cold

• The wind was biting at my face as it blew
• The early-morning cold really bites, so you should wrap up warm

Focus: Past Tense of Bite

To understand the word “bite” a lot better, and especially how to use it in the past tense, we have prepared a number of example sentences that make use of all of the following forms:

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

Simple Past of “bite”

• The young girl bit the teacher in anger, causing him to yowl in pain
• I bit into the cookie, but unfortunately cracked a tooth on one of the hard candies inside
• He bit down on his tongue by accident, sending shockwaves of pain through his body

Present Perfect of “bite”

• My dog has bitten me before, but we have since seen a behavior specialist and now she would never do that
• Have you ever bitten another person? It’s a strange experience
• I have bitten directly into ice cream before, but can’t do that now because my teeth are too sensitive

Past Continuous of “bite”

• I saw that he was biting down on the toy quite hard…how did you get it from him?
• We were just biting into our tacos when we heard the fire alarm and had to leave
• The wind was biting at my face all afternoon while I walked the dogs

Past Perfect of “bite”

• He had bitten his brother on the arm before he could even think about retaliating
• You had already bitten into the sandwich before you noticed that there was a dead insect inside it?

Understanding the Verb “Bite”

“Bite” originates from the Old English “bitan,” meaning “to pierce or cut with the teeth.” It’s used both literally and figuratively.

Phrasal Verbs with “Bite”

1. Bite off: To use your teeth to cut, wound, or tear something.
   • He bit off a large piece of the apple.
   • Don’t bite off more than you can chew.
2. Bite back: To suppress or hold back an emotion or comment.
   • She bit back her tears during the sad movie.
   • He wanted to yell but bit back his anger.
3. Bite into: To start to eat something.
   • She eagerly bit into the juicy burger.
   • The apple was so crisp and fresh when I bit into it.

Common Mistakes with “Bite”

• Incorrect: I have bited the sandwich.
• Correct: I have bitten the sandwich.

• Incorrect: The snake has bite him.
• Correct: The snake has bitten him.

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