What Is The Past Tense of Take? The Comprehensive Guide

Take in the past tense can be a little tricky for students to learn as it does change form quite dramatically even for an irregular English verb. We have the full guide further below to help you understand these changes and the quite bite sized answer right below if you are just doing a quick check.

The past tense of “take” is “took” in simple past form. In other forms, it’s expressed as “have/has taken” for present perfect, “was/were taking” for past continuous, and “had taken” for past perfect.

Understanding the past tense forms of irregular verbs like “take” is a huge step forward for both native English speakers and those learning English as a second language. This comprehensive guide will delve into the past tense of “take,” its conjugation, and examples to help you enhance either your or those of your students grammar and English skills.

What is the Past Tense of “Take”?

The verb “take” is used to convey the action of grasping or seizing something and carrying or leading it somewhere.

The simple past tense of “take” is “took,” and the past participle is “taken.” Although there are other forms we will also explore here.

Take (verb):

(1) To grasp or seize something with the intention of moving it or carrying it

(2) To lead or escort someone to a place

Infinitive	Simple Past	Past Participle
to take	took	taken

Using “take” in the Past Tense: Conjugation Table for the past tense verb ‘take’

The table below lists the most common way the verb ‘take’ would be used in english tenses and you can use it as an easy referral guide as you need to. We have covered simple, present perfect, present continuous as well as the infinitive.

Table 1: Conjugation table for the Irregular verb ‘take.‘

Pronoun	Infinitive	Simple Past	Present Perfect	Present Continuous
I	take	took	have taken	are taking
You (sing.)	take	took	have taken	are taking
He/She/It	takes	took	has taken	is taking
We	take	took	have taken	are taking
You (pl.)	take	took	have taken	are taking
They	take	took	have taken	are taking

Example Sentences with “Take”

Often the best way to learn, or at least remember how english grammar is used is to see it used in examples. So we have given 2 or 3 sentences with each of the bolded tenses and with its two meanings ( take can mean more than one thing) to give you and idea on how to use the past ( and present) tense of ‘take’ in both its meanings. We will follow with the tense forms as well.

(1) To grasp or seize something with the intention of moving it or carrying it

• She took the book off the shelf and started reading
• He took the suitcase and carried it to the car

(2) To lead or escort someone to a place

• They took the visitors on a tour of the museum
• She took her friend to the best restaurant in town

Focus: How to Use “Take” in the Past Tense

To gain a better understanding of the verb “take” and how to use it in the past tense, let’s explore some example sentences in various forms: We cover the tenses below.

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

Simple Past

• I took the last cookie from the jar
• She took the bus to work today
• They took a walk around the park after dinner

Present Perfect

• I have taken a new job in another city
• We haven’t taken a vacation in years
• She has taken up painting as a hobby

Past Continuous

• I was taking a shower when the phone rang
• Were you taking notes during the lecture?
• They were taking a break when the boss walked in

Past Perfect

• I had taken the medication before I realized it was expired
• They had taken the wrong turn, which led them to a dead end
• We had taken precautions, but the storm still caused damage

You can check all the other irregular past tense words we have covered on Making English Fun by clicking on the links in the table below.

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

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:

so with take turning into took in its simple past tense form it can be a little challenging to remember. Hopefully the examples and guide above have helped in some way. if not we have some further resources below.

By understanding the past tense forms of the irregular verb “take” and other common irregular verbs and of course practicing and using it in all its forms we highlighted above you will find writing and speaking becoming more and more natural as you continue learning english.

Further Resources

These are a mix of both ours ( if you are practicing past tense and other sites in case you need further clarification.

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

• https://pasttenses.com/take-past-tense
• https://www.wordhippo.com/what-is/the-past-tense-of/take.html
• https://onlymyenglish.com/take-past-tense/