Past Tense of Find

The verb “find” in English is both frequently used and very important for learners to master. Beyond its main definition of discovering, recognizing or perceiving something, it can also be a noun.

As a noun, “find” refers to valuable discoveries. The past tense of find is “found” and its participle is also “found”.

What is the past tense of “find”?

Find (verb):

Infinitive	Simple Past	Past Participle
to find	found	found

(1) To discover by chance; to perceive or discover something previously unknown/unseen

(2) To recognize or discover something as being present

• Infinitive                       to find
• Simple Past                 found
• Past Participle             found

Conjugation Table of “find”

Pronoun	Infinitive	Simple Past	Present Perfect	Present Continuous
I	find	found	have found	am finding
You (sing.)	find	found	have found	are finding
He/She/It	finds	found	has found	is finding
We	find	found	have found	are finding
You (pl.)	find	found	have found	are finding
They	find	found	have found	are finding

Example Sentences of “find”

(1) To discover by chance; to perceive or discover something previously unknown/unseen

• I looked out of the window only to find my kids playing outside after I told them not to
• We found the restaurant too dark when we were there, we could barely read the menus
• After many hours of research, he finally found the solution to the math problem

(2) To recognize or discover something as being present

• You will find a lot of sugar in chocolate
• I found my wedding ring in the kitchen sink yesterday
• You won’t find happiness if you just stay at work all the time

Focus: Past Tense of Find

The word “find” is a very important one for learners to master since it is used for both concrete and abstract concepts, and is among the most frequently used English verbs. To show the extent of the past tense usage, we have prepared several example sentences using the following tenses:

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

Simple Past of “find”

• He found the math problem incredibly difficult
• They found their way through the forest to their destination
• I found that beautiful pin that I lost years ago, I can’t believe it!

Present Perfect of “find”

• I have found your company very comforting in these past few weeks, so thank you
• They have found a new way to create clean, renewable energy
• He has found that a career in accounting isn’t what he really want to do with his life

Past Continuous of “find”

• She was finding life balancing a full-time job and raising three children too much to bear
• We were finding it hard to cope with the loss of our father
• I was finding his company tiresome at first, but then as I got to know him more, he became a great companion

Past Perfect of “find”

• You had found many solutions to problems over the years, but what prevented you from solving that particular one in 2015?
• We had just found that excessive consumption of that material can increase chances of cancer when our funding was suddenly pulled from us.

Understanding the Verb “Find”

The verb “find” hails from the Old English “findan,” meaning “to come upon, achieve.” It’s most commonly used to indicate the act of discovering or perceiving something, whether tangibly or in a metaphorical sense.

Phrasal Verbs with “Find”

“Find” lays the foundation for several phrasal verbs:

• Find out: To discover or ascertain information.
  • I need to find out the truth about the incident.
  • She found out about the party from her friend.
• Find oneself: To realize one’s position or to discover one’s true nature.
  • He found himself lost in the woods.
  • After years of soul-searching, she found herself.
• Find fault with: To criticize or point out the flaws in something.
  • It’s easy to find fault with others but harder to see our own flaws.
  • She always finds fault with his cooking.

Common Mistakes

Be wary of these common errors with “find”:

• Incorrect: Have you find my keys?
• Correct: Have you found my keys?

• Incorrect: She finded a new job.
• Correct: She found a new job.

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 and our past tense resources by clicking on the links in the table below and in the resource list below that.

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

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

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

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	build
become