What is the Past Tense of Bear
The English verb “bear” has multiple meanings but is invariably connected with carrying or shouldering a burden or responsibility, as well as enduring some sort of hardship or difficulty. It can be used in a literal or physical sense, and also in a more abstract sense.
Bear is something of an irregular verb when it comes to forming the past tense, with the simple past tense being “bore” and the past participle being “born.”
What is the past tense of “bear”?
Bear (verb):
(1) To carry the weight of something; to support the weight of something
(2) To endure or withstand some manner of difficulty or hardship (including pain)
- Infinitive to bear
- Simple Past bore
- Past Participle born
Conjugation Table
| Pronoun | Infinitive | Simple Past | Present Perfect | Present Continuous |
| I | bear | bore | have born | am bearing |
| You (sing.) | bear | bore | have born | are bearing |
| He/She/It | bears | bore | has born | is bearing |
| We | bear | bore | have born | are bearing |
| You (pl.) | bear | bore | have born | are bearing |
| They | bear | bore | have born | are bearing |
Example Sentences
(1) To carry the weight of something; to support the weight of something
- He is a strong man, able to bear the weight of many full bags
- That sack is so heavy, are you sure you can bear it?
- He’s bearing the weight of the world on his shoulders
(2) To endure or withstand some manner of difficulty or hardship (including pain)
- How are you bearing up in these difficult times?
- It’s just so painful, I can’t bear it!
- I can’t bear the sound of her voice!
Focus: Past Tense of Bear
The verb “bear” is one of those that some learners may think they can do without, but then quickly realize just how commonly it is used in both spoken and written forms. The simple past tense of bear is “bore” but we have included more examples below that include all of the following past-tense forms:
- Simple past
- Present perfect
- Past continuous
- Past perfect
Simple Past
- He bore the weight of his workload with real panache
- Even though the boxes were heavy, they bore them all the way from the office to their cars with relative ease
- Though life would never be the same, she bore the loss of her husband with tremendous grace and dignity.
Present Perfect
- I have born the weight of many emotional burdens in my life
- We have born these hardships for too long, and now we think there must be change
- He has born a real burden in being the eldest child of that family
Past Continuous
- She was bearing the workload with ease until her sudden promotion to supervisor, after which things got a lot more difficult
- They were bearing the weight of numerous responsibilities during that semester
- He was bearing the loss of his mother with fortitude for a time, but then he suffered a serious emotional breakdown
Past Perfect
- You had born many tremendous responsibilities that month, so of course you were more stressed than usual
- I had born the extra weight of the suitcases with ease for the outgoing journey, but when it came to the return journey, that was another story.
You can check other past tense words by clicking on the links in the table below.
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
- 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
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